I 



i 

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THE 

Power OF THE IN VISIBLE 

AND OTHER 

LECTURES AND IDDRESSES, 

Chiefly Educational and Baeealaureate, 

/ 

REV. H. A. THOMPSON, D. D,, 

FrEsidBnt Df DttErliEiii UiiivETsity, 



"On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great 
but mind.''' 

Sir Wj^^ 

fjOL 2 1883 ll 

DAYTON, OHIO: ^^^^£^a5H^^' 
United Brethren Publishing House. 
1882. 



Copyright, 1882, 
BY H. A. THOMPSON. 



Of Otterbein University, Western and Westfield Collegt 

many of whom 

It has been my Pleasure to Teach, and in Whose Interest a Number 
OF these Papers were Prepared, 

AND 

TO ALL THE FRIENDS OF HIGHER EDUCATION 

IN this church, 

IS THIS LITTLE VOLUME RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 

The Author. 



PREFACE. 



TT7HE addresses pu"blished in this little volume were prepared 
'X*" for and chiefly addressed to students and other friends of 
education. "The Power of the Invisible," -'Christianity the 
True Manhood," "The Completion of the Soul," "The Eesponsi- 
Mlity of the Christian Scholar," "Service the True Idea of Life," 
were dehvered to graduating classes in connection with Otter- 
bein University. "Christianity and the College" was an address 
to the friends and patrons of the same institution, in 1871, when 
the author was inducted into his present o£8.ce. "The Sunday- 
school and the Seminary " was prepared by invitation of the 
Executive Committee of the International Sabbath-school Asso- 
ciation, and read before that body at its convention in Toronto 
in 1881. "The Training of the Children for the Church" was a 
topic assigned by a committee to arrange papers for the Ecumen-. 
ical Council of the Methodist Church, and was read before that 
body at its meeting in London in the fall of 1881. "An Educat- 
ed Ministry the Want of the Age " was an address delivered in 
connection with the commencement exercises in Western College. 
"The Duty of the Church to Furnish the World with a Faithful 
and Competent Ministry" was delivered at Dayton in 1882, in 
connection ^ith the dedication of Union Biblical Seminary. 

At diflerent times the author has been solicited, by those in 
whose behalf these addresses were originally prepared, to put 



Vi PREFACE. 

them in more permanent form. He now gives them to the pub- 
lic, hoping that they will not only call up to these classes, as 
they do to him, golden memories of the past, but that they may be 
helpful to his brethren in the church in giving them broader 
views of the educational work and its intimate relation to the 
prosperity of the Master's kingdom. 
Ottebbein Univeksity, Westerville, August, 1882. 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE I. 

PAGE. 



The Power of the Invisible, - 9 
LECTURE II. 

The Training of the Children for the Church, . - - 49 
LECTURE III. 

Christianity and the College, = - 63 

LECTURE IV. 

The Sunday-school and the Seminary, _ . . - 99 
LECTURE V. 

Christianity the True Manhood, 129 

LECTURE VI. 

The Responsibility of Christian Scholars, - . . - 161 
LECTURE VII. 

An Educated Ministry the Want of the Age, - - 203 

LECTURE VIII. 
Service the True Idea of Life, 253 

LECTURE IX. 

The Higher Education and the Church, _ - . 287 
LECTURE X. 

The Completion of the Soul, 319 

LECTURE XI. 

The Duty of the Church to Furnish the World with a Faith- 
ful and Competent Ministry, ------ 351 



'HE human beings with whom we daily come in 



JL contact may be divided into at least two classes. 
In one of these we shall lind the matter-of-fact men, 
who live in the basilar portions of their nature, and 
are not easily led astray by a fervid imagination. To 
them the broad earth upon which they tread is a real 
thing. They scarcely ever look at the heavens above 
them except to learn the indications of rain; for these 
are intangible, and possibly visionary. Their farms, 
their cattle, their money, their stocks, their dinners, 
their bodies are the real things. Their thoughts are 
occupied with the present. They know little of the 
past, and are unconcerned as to the future, provided 
it does not bring them suffering. They are no wild 
enthusiasts, running after the speculations of heated 
brains; nor do they busy themselves in contemplating 
impossible contingencies, nor in seeking to secure 
improbable results. Themselves and their immediate 
dependencies engage all their thoughts. They have 
no knowledge of the vast millions about them; nor 
do they think of their needs, nor their possibilities. 
All they wish is to be let alone in their sphere ; to 
give their attention and their labors to the little ma- 
terial world about them, and be allowed to take from 
it as much comfort as they can before their eyes grow 




10 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



dim, tlieir limbs weaken, and the golden bowl be 
broken. 

The other class live in the same world, come in con- 
tact with the same material influences, but the phys- 
ical realm is to them the symbol of the unseen forces 
which they represent. Back of the tiny flower, the 
murmuring brook, or the golden sunset is the spirit 
of beauty which they mirror forth. In the bodies 
which they possess, they see the instruments which 
the soul uses to accomplish its own purposes and to 
do the work of life. The human faces upon which 
they gaze shadow forth not simply curved surfaces, 
nor straight lines, but a beauty of thought and life 
which charms and interests a beholder. The books 
they read speak to them of great intellects that once 
lived and ruled and reigned in the world of letters^ 
and which yet exist beyond our ken. As the whole 
round of ceremonies in the old Jewish ritual shadow- 
ed forth the Christian economy, and especially point- 
ed to Him who was to give himself a ransom for 
many, so the earth to these men is full of pictures of 
beauty and representations of truth. In the starry 
heavens above, in the landscape with its variety of 
hill and valley, of meadow and forest, a man of this 
class looks beyond the visible, the material, to that 
which is represented thereby. He treads the earthy 
but his thoughts are in the skies. He inhabits a 
world of sense, but he revels in the fields of the un- 
seen. His body allies him to earth, but no cords can 
draw him away from the enjoyment of the invisible 
and the spiritual. 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



11 



With these, as with the gruff old Scotchman, who 
has just gone to his long home, notliing he sees but 
has two meaniugs ; for matter, were it never so 
despicable, is the manifestation of spirit The thing, 
visible, nay, the thing imagined, the thing in any way 
conceived as visible, what is it but a garment, a cloth- 
ing of the higher celestial Invisible ?" 

There are invisible forces, unseen influences, above 
and beyond the spheres of the material life, which 
to a great extent interpenetrate and control it. These 
differ in rank and power among themselves ; but they 
are all stronger than the forces which come within 
the range of vision, or are made known to us by our 
material organism. To the extent we utilize these 
forces, and turn them into proper channels, to that 
extent we harness them to our chariots and use them 
to our advancement. 

A great jSTew England mind once said, Beware 
when God lets loose a thinker on this planet." The 
Scottish iconoclast tells us truly, -A thinking man is 
the worst enemy the powers of darkness can have. 
Every time such a one announces himself, I doubt 
not there runs a shudder through the nether empire, 
and new emissaries are trained with new tactics to if 
possible entrap him and hoodwink him and handicap 
him." 

Who can compute the force of an idea when it once 
takes possession of a human soul ? When Paul was 
so strangely converted, his broad mind took in the 
conversion of the gentile as well as the Jew. To him 
they were both necessary to the work which the 



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THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



Master came to accomplish. The more he considered 
it, the more it entered into his very nature. His first 
charge was a church among the geatiles. The Jews 
everywhere ridiculed and persistently opposed the 
idea and the man. Convinced of its truthfulness, 
with all the earnestness of his nature he taught it to 
others. From city to city, amid the most bitter op- 
position, through defile and over mountain, among 
rude barbarians and cultured G-reeks, he uttered the 
same truth. He provokes contest after contest until 
the mother church grapples with it, and Paul comes 
ofl' victorious. All the enmity of the J ews is finally 
aroused. The man is mobbed, his life sought by 
sworn enemies, every influence used to destroy him, 
in order to stop the growth of the idea. But it grows 
on until the Christian world to-day is on Paul's side, 
and recognizes neither Jew nor gentile, Greek nor 
barbarian, bond nor free, but all one in Christ. 

In our own nation we have seen a similar illustra- 
tion of the power of an idea. Our fathers entailed 
upon the nation a curse which it required the best 
blood and a great amount of treasure to blot out. It 
entered into the heads and hearts of a few men that 
it was wrong to hold property in man. The more 
they reflected, the more sinful it seemed. If this 
nation persisted in such wickedness, it seemed to 
them the curse of God must be visited upon it. A 
burden of the Lord was upon them to go forth and 
teach their fellows. They organize in order to make 
their work effective. On the 6th of January, 1832, 
in the basement of the African Baptist church, on 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



13 



Belknap Street, Boston, was organized the first anti- 
slavery society, by a determined band of twelve men. 
"On that , dismal night, and in the face of a public 
opinion fiercer far than the tempest of wind and hail 
that beat upon the windows of that ' nigger school- 
house,' were laid the foundations of an organized 
movement against slavery, that at last became too 
mighty to be resisted, and that drew into its wake 
the statesmanship as well as the piety and philan- 
thropy of the country." 

How insignificant seemed their work, and how 
pretentious their eftorts. But they realized the force 
of an idea. They expected to die on the field of 
battle; but they believed there could be but one issue 
to such a contest. The history of this struggle is 
written in letters of blood; but it proved the salva- 
tion of the nation. The very salt of the earth, they 
were bruised and beaten and mobbed. Everything 
that could be done by individuals, by corporations, 
by churches, by government to stay this work was 
done. 1^0 epithet was too bad to apply to them. 
In the school-houses, on the street-corners, in private 
dwellings, wherever they could find hearers, amid the 
jeers and scoft's of the baser sort, they held on their 
way. Every convert they made increased their zeal. 
'No threats could deter them; no opposition could 
dampen their courage; no approaching danger could 
close their mouths. The burden of Jehovah was up- 
on them to go forth, and they went. The idea they 
represented disrupted churches, annoyed the ofiicers 
of government, turned family against family, and 



14 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



made soutlieru oppressors tremble. It was earnestly 
talked at the fireside. It was discussed and bitterly 
opposed in religious assemblies. It put its strong 
hand on political parties. It was the ghost which 
would not down. The more it was opposed, the 
m.ore it grew. The leader in the movement was 
dragged through the streets of polite Boston with a 
rope about his neck, and his life threatened, but the 
idea could not be mobbed. Its brave defender was 
struck down in the Senate chamber by a brutal 
senator, but the idea would not die. Soon instead of 
begging a place, it became conqueror, and controlled 
church and conference and general assembly. It 
made governors and chose congressmen. It enacted 
laws and elected presidents. It changed constitu- 
tions. It made a civil war and broke the fetters of 
millions of slaves. It overturned until it had purified 
the nations. It drove out the devil that had taken 
possession of the body politic, and was causing it to 
tear itself, and put it under the control of sober 
reason. The idea which existed a feeble impulse in 
the minds of a few now dominates the nation with 
such power that an attempt to break its force would 
be attempting the life of the nation. 

The stars and stripes which led our troops through 
bloody conflict to glorious victory is not richer nor 
more handsome than the flags which are carried by 
the soldiery of other nations ; but the former symbol- 
izes all that is near and dear to them of their native 
land. It means home and family, civil and religious 
institutions, free government, opportunities for de- 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



15 



velopmeiit, and all that the nation holds dear. It 
represents to them the struggles and sufferings of 
those who defended this land against foreign oppres- 
sion. All they are and all they hope to be is symbol- 
ized in that flag. The things it represents are things 
that nerve his heart and hand for the conflicts of 
battle. 

Stand by the side of a dead human form. All that 
you ever saw you see now. The head, the limbs, the 
body are all there; but these are not the man. That 
which stood to you for the man, and which is now 
missing, were certain unseen forces — certain mental 
and spiritual capabilities that used this lump of clay 
now before you as an instrument with which to man- 
ifest themselves. The downcast look, the flashing 
eye, the compressed lips, the upturned face all spoke 
of hidden forces. To the extent you could interpret 
these outward signs, to this extent you realized the 
nature of these unseen realities. What seems to you 
so real and so tangible as a human being, and yet 
what so hidden ? You see the prison in which he 
dwells, but no man ever looked upon the prisoner. 
"We see the wires upon which the current plays, but 
we gaze not upon the electricity. There may come a 
time when these bundles of capabilities shall be able 
with increased power of reason to look upon each 
other, but at present no power save the unseen, which 
is above all and controls all, can look upon these 
forces and tell their nature. Hidden as is this 
part of our nature, how terrible its power ! What 
wonderful possibilities are wrapped up in those forms 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



which a feeble material tenemeDt may inclose. Who 
hats ever been able to fathom the power, the value, the 
nature, the possibilities of the human soul ? 

Even in the world of matter, that which we call 
force is unseen ; and these unseen forces are more 
real, more enduring, and more powerful than those 
which are revealed to the naked eye, if indeed any 
are visible. The highest type of perpetuity which 
the visible world furnishes is the enduring rock or 
the everlasting hills. These are never permanent, 
but are constantly changing. The elements are al- 
ways at work, and disintegration is going on. The 
lighting plays about them, and they are broken. The 
rain comes down upon the mountain, and its particles 
are carried down into the valley. The wind rushes 
along its sides, and the dust is driven before it. After 
many centuries the mountain is gone, but the forces 
which do the work go on till the hand which made 
them shall destroy them. 

We see something of the power of steam, but we 
can not measure its force. It drives our million 
spindles, pushes our locomotives, and turns our great 
Corliss engines. We can not see it, but it is terrible 
in its effects. With a giant's strength it breaks the 
bands that bind it, and scatters mountains like mole- 
hills. W^hen it becomes visible its power is gone. It 
dies in the very act of revealing itself to our feeble 
ken. That subtile influence which we call electricity 
is just as hidden. It lies beyond the region of sense. 
"No one understands its nature. It is present in all 
animal and vegetable life. It reveals itself as does 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



17 



the steam, but in its very manifestation its power is 
expended. In the twinkling of an eye, with all ease, 
with no noise, unseen of man, it carries his message 
from continent to continent. The great tall oaks are 
to it as an infant in the hands of a giant. It rends 
the oak and tears in pieces the finest structure which 
man can erect. It permits itselt to be controlled; but 
at times it breaks away from all restraint, and man 
stands aghast at its power. 

So of heat, of chemical afiinity, of gravitation, of 
all the powerful forces in the realm of matter. They 
are invisible, yet are the servants of that other higher 
force which we call mind. They come and go at its 
nod. As its servants they do its bidding, and all 
nature is joyous with their activity. 

'No man ever makes the most of his own powers, 
nor accomplishes the most for his race, unless he has 
implicit faith in the invisible; unless he possesses that 
habit of mind which keeps the soul in contact and 
communion with the unseen and distant, the eternal 
and the divine. It becomes a principle of strength ; 
and no other incentive has ever produced such ex- 
amples of energy and industry, or made a man so 
mighty as this. It develops in him the highest style 
of humanity, and gives him a more than human 
power. It brings to a helpless being the power of a 
divine nature, and he who thus allies himself to God 
holds in his hands all the forces of the universe. The 
strength of this faith is not proportioned to the nat- 
ure of the being who manifests, nor the insignifi- 
cance of the subject, but to the glory of the object, 



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THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



the everlasting God and the nature of those who put 
their trust in him. The man who believes in God as 
the ruler of the world, and who believes the revela- 
tion which he has made of himself, who holds con- 
verse with things which are not revealed to sense, 
has in him a force and incentive to action of which 
others are utterly unconscious. Such a power is 
absolutely necessary to the regeneratian of this world. 
It directs a man with almost unerring certainty in 
the choice of his life-work, and nerves him to accom- 
plish it in the face of all difficulties and dangers 
which may arise to hinder him. 

This is true even in the lower realm of unseen 
influences. In the execution of selfish purposes men 
prosper as they have faith in the unseen. Law, 
science, ambition, have all had their devotees and 
their martyrs, Even those men who have inflicted 
evil on their race, have done so, in part, because 
they have gone beyond the realm of sense, and been 
influenced by the power of the unseen forces. But 
to reach the highest type of manhood, and to do the 
best possible work, men need the presence of the 
highest invisible forces w^hich dominate the spiritual 
realm. To move the world we must have what the 
old Grecian sought, a fulcrum for the lever; and this 
is found in the faith which the Christian believer has 
in the eternal verities. Not until the veil is drawn 
aside and man has glimpses of that world with 
which our relations are so intimate ; not until he 
loses sight of self and is set free from the dominion 
of his own evil nature, is he in best condition for 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



19 



unfolding his own powers and for faithfully meeting 
the requirements of his Creator. Then he is ready 
for active service. As these unseen realities are dis- 
cerned more clearh^ and become to him more real, 
his j)urposes will become stronger and his labors 
more abundant. It is the man of faith who bears 
the burden and heat of the day; who is Instant in 
season and out of season; who is strong and steady 
when others have lost heart. JSTo misfortune dis- 
courages, no opposition hinders, no danger inti mi- 
elates him. He can run all risks, incur all dangers, 
make all sacrifices, for he is simply an instrument, 
and wherever he may fall the principle for which he 
contends is immortal. It was this faith in the unseen 
which made possible that grand triumphal song in 
the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and which is to- 
day covering the earth with good deeds ; teaching 
the lost world of a risen Savior, lifting up those that 
are bowed down with sorrow^, and placing before 
men's minds as things suitable for their hopes and 
affections the eternal truths, which shall inspire them 
with a new life. 

AYhatever of religious and civil liberty this coun- 
try enjoys, and perhaps the world, is due in great 
part to the Puritans, — men of whom the w^orld was 
not worthy ; and it was their strong faith in the 
highest spiritual forces which made them martyrs to 
the cause of human rights. Had it not been for this 
the persecutions that befel them would have crushed 
all life out of them. One of their historians has 
said, " The strength of the Puritans lay in the depths 



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THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



of their theology; and the pith of their theology 
was their subjective consciousness, their heart-felt 
belief of the truths which the apostles preached, 
with the Holy Grhost sent down from heaven.'^ 
Macaulay, who does not at all times seem to do them 
justice, can yet see that their faith in the unseen i& 
the master passion of their natures. He says : 

" The Puritans were men whose minds had derived 
a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of 
superior beings and eternal interests. Hence origin- 
ated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. If 
their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train 
of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge 
over them. Their palaces were houses not made with 
hands; their diadems crowns of glory which should 
never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on 
noble and priest they looked down with contempt; 
for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious 
treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language ; 
nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests 
by the imposition of a mightier hand.'"' 

Says Dr. Vinet: ''Vulgar souls wish to see, to 
touch, to grasp. Others have the eye of faith, and 
they are great. It is always by having faith in oth- 
ers, in ourselves, in duty, in the divinity that men 
have done great things. Faith has been at all times 
the strength of the feeble and the salvation of the 
miserable.'' 

Says a ^ew England writer: "The age of the 
Judges is what we have styled it, — the heroic age in 
Israel, — just because and just so far as it was the age 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



21 



of faith. Whatever may have been their other ex- 
cellences, and however great their imperfections may 
have been, they all had the virtue of faith. They 
were all strong in the persuasion that they were rais- 
ed up by God to vindicate his truth, to avenge his 
cause, to deliver his people; and the lesson that we 
are to learn from them is that their faith, in other 
words, loyalty to truth, duty, and God, even though 
imperfectly understood, is the beginning of wisdom, 
is the essence of virtue, is the inspiration of heroism, 
is the secret of courage and strength." 

Back of every grand deed is the man who wrought 
it. Back of every thought is the thinker, who is 
himself grander than any thought he has ever ut- 
tered. Back of every poem written is the writer ^ 
full of unwritten poems, himself a poem to be read 
and studied by all. 

Who is this man, what was he, what did he do, 
of whom the inspired penman has w^ritten that he 
lived and thought and acted as in the presence of the 
invisible God ? His life is a wonderful record, fraught 
with interest and profit to those who will carefully 
examine it. A few of the more important facts are 
all we can notice. 

Those who think it was a small thing for Moses to 
turn his back upon Egypt, its people, and its honors, 
do not realize the situation. This was no barren, 
worthless waste, inhabited by an ignorant, half-civil- 
ized people, whom an enterprising young man would 
only be too glad to leave behind. It has one of the 
finest climates in the world. At certain seasons it 



22 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



seems like a beautiful garden, a verdant meadow, a 
field sown with fiowers. It has scarcely any rain, no 
dew, no hail, no storms. Its famous river digs its 
canals, floods and fertilizes the land ; and so faithful 
and Tegular is it that it has failed but a few times in 
thousands of years. 

The people of the past were religious to an unusual 
extent. For the higher classes there was a phil- 
osophical system of religion, which included among 
its truths the immortality of the soul, man's respon- 
sibility, and rewards and punishment. The priest- 
ly class among them was large and influential. In 
every large "-'city was a temple dedicated to the deity 
of the place, together with a high-priest, who stood 
next the king and restricted his power. The priest- 
hood possessed the finest portions of the country. 
They were the judges, the physicians, astrologers, 
architects. In a word, they united in themselves all 
the highest culture and distinguished offices of the 
land, while with them alone lay tradition, literature^ 
and sacred writings. This class exerted the most 
decided and extensive influence on the culture not 
only of their own country, but of the world; for 
during the highest periods of Grecian history the 
love of knowledge carried into Egypt men who have 
done so much to form the character of after ages, 
such as Solon, Pythagoras, Herodotus, and Plato." 

The Egyptians, as a class, were a settled people, 
occupying land they had held for centuries. The 
higher class would superintend their farms and their 
gardens, and for a diversion would seek game in the 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



23 



desert, on the river, or engage in fishing. The herd- 
ing of the animals was done by the lowest class. 

These Egyptians were a literary people, and there 
have been preserved for us the inscriptions on their 
tombs and temples, with many papyri of a religious 
or historical nature, and one tale. They had attained 
to a hio^li deo:ree of civilization and mental culture. 
Many items of knowledge justify this statement. 
They were well acquainted with the facts of astron- 
omy. They understood the decimal and duodecimal 
system of notation, and the general principles of 
mathematics. Painting upon panels and plaster was 
practiced by them two thousand years before Christ. 
They were skilled in dentistry and the general prac- 
tice of surgery and medicine. 

The industrial arts held a very important place in 
their occupations. The workers in flax and the 
weavers of white linen were the chief contributors 
to the riches of the country. The looms of Egypt 
were famed for their fine cloths and woolen fabrics; 
and many of them were worked with patterns in 
brilliant colors, sometimes wrought with the needle 
and sometimes woven in the piece. They were famil- 
iar with the use of iron from a remote period, and 
their skill in the manufacture of bronze was celebrat- 
ed. They were familiar with the use of the forceps, 
the blow-pipe, the bellows, the syringe, and syphon. 
At an early period gold-mines were wrought in upper 
Egypt. 

In architecture they were very successful, as the 
magnificent temples, whose ruins yet remain, bear 



24 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



witness. There was a reason for this ; for with them 
architecture was a religion, and embodied in its prin- 
ciples their highest religious convictions. The valley 
of the ISTile is full of these ruins, which have survived 
the centuries, and are proofs positive of one of the 
grandest civilizations which the world has ever seen. 
These ruined temples sink into insignificance every- 
thing of which this age may boast. In the ruins of 
El Karnak may be found a magnificent hall 170 feet 
in length and 329 in width. It is supported by 134 
columns, the loftiest of which are nearly 70 feet in 
height and about 12 feet in diameter. Among the 
interesting monuments of Thebes are the tombs of 
kings, twenty-one in number. "The painting and 
sculptures are almost wholly of a religious character, 
referring chiefly to a future state. Standing on the 
resting-places of kings and warriors who figured in 
the history of Egypt while the world was yet young, 
and long before the age of others whom we are ac- 
customed to consider heroes of antiquity, it seems as 
though death itself were immortalized." 

This was the land, these the people, and this the 
civilization to which this man would most likely have 
fallen heir. Trained at the court as the adopted son, 
he would become familiar w^ith the aftairs of state. 
He would receive the best culture the schools of his 
age could afiford. For the time being he is an 
Egyptian. If not destined to be the king's successor, 
he is competent to be next in authority to him. The 
example of the successful Joseph is before him to stir 
his youthful blood. With all these incentives to 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 25 

stimulate him, with the fires of a youthful ambition 
burniug in his veins, he would make good use of his 
opportunities. The Scriptures teach us, "he was 
mighty in words and deeds, and trained in all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians." We have already shown 
that they were a highly cultured people. The best 
learning of the times was found in this nation. Tra- 
dition teaches us that Moses was educated at Heliop- 
olis, and grew up as a priest. This city was the 
center of their worship ; a city of magnificent tem- 
ples and other specimens of sculpture and architect- 
ure. Here was the national university. Here he 
was taught the whole range of Greek, Chaldaic, and 
Assyrian literature. He became skilled in mathe- 
matics, and trained for the unprejudiced reception of 
truth. He invents boats and engines for building, 
instruments of war and of hydraulics, divisions of 
land and hieroglyphics. His after-history shows him 
to have been a man of miraculous gifts and of fine 
culture — a man whom providence raised up for a 
great purpose, which purpose he accepted for his 
life-work, and made himself immortal. 

With such training as he received, with the powers 
which he possessed, and the field opening up before 
him, no trifling thing could tempt him from the 
beaten path. What splendid prizes await him in 
the near future if he will but act well his part? 
When did a more glorious vision dawn upon youth- 
ful eyes? If we are to judge by the reports which 
come to our ears, not only many young men, but 

even the grown men of to-day, would sacrifice man- 
3 



f 



26 THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 

hood, conscience, if not indeed their everlasting life, 
for such prizes as were held out to this man. 

"With all of these things before him, he can not for- 
get the home of his childhood — the golden memories 
of his early years. Why was he so strangely saved 
when all others were destroyed? Had his faithful 
mother instilled into him her own convictions that 
a marked destiny awaited him ? Although a mem- 
ber of the royal family, is it not altogether likely that 
he kept up a close connection with the old home, 
and time and again received fresh instruction from 
heads of that sainted household? As he pondered 
over his own strange existence, trying to reconcile 
the circumstances which have in the past surrounded 
and do yet surround him, may not the thought come 
to him as explanatory of all this that God means 
something unusual by his romantic life; that possi- 
ble God shall use him to deliver his own kinsmen ? 
If he shall be able to lead out of a terrible bondage 
his oppressed brethren, it shall be a greater glory 
than to reign king of Egypt. In the buoyancy of 
youth, full of hope and courage, conscious of the 
justice of his cause, he carefully surveys the ground 
and resolves upon the attempt. The first blow is 
struck perhaps sooner than he intended. No doubt 
he expects that at the first signal of alarm the people 
will rise up in self-defense, and under his leadership 
strike a strong and sure blow for freedom. Similar 
efforts have been made before, and the people rallied 
to their leader. Strange to say, they are so sunken 
in bondage, and so broken in spirit, they do not 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



27 



recognize his work. The people fail him in the hour 
of need. A report of his wicked and rash act comes 
to the king's ears. Alas, how many would only be 
too glad to be the bearers of such a message. While 
he has been sadly deceived, how many are rejoicing 
He has broken with the king and all his Egyptian 
friends, and has failed to secure any Hebrew allies. 
Was ever the cup of human happiness so suddenly 
dashed to the ground ! An ignominous flight beyond 
the reach of the king is the only thing left. 

Says a modern writer in his description of Egypt : 
" Riding through the thronged bazaars of Cairo, 
where men of every nation jostle you with their 
burdens and confuse you with their jargon, you 
emerge upon an avenue which conducts you to a 
princely palace without the walls. Rows of trees, 
artificially nurtured, keep up for awhile the sem- 
blance of vegetation ; but no sooner have you passed 
the palace with its elaborate gardens, than you 
plunge into the open desert, where as far as the eye 
can reach you see neither tree, nor shrub, nor house, 
nor any living thing. The huge bulk of the pyra- 
mids beyond the river fades from your view ; the 
obelisk of Heliopolis recedes ; the minarets of the 
city grow less and less distinct. 'No token of man 
is seen, no house, no fence, no tree, no monument, 
no footstep even, save the well-trodden path of 
caravans. The sun sinks into the great basin of 
sand before you, and night shuts in the wide cir- 
cumference of desolation. 

"When Moses plunged into the desert the monu- 



28 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



merits of Egypt, whose ruins now amaze the traveler^ 
were in their glory. A vast city adjacent to the 
pyramids, of which now hardly a trace is found, 
was then the capital. Then the population was 
dense and the government was strong and enterpris- 
ing, rearing new works as stupendous as those of 
former reigns. All this glory Moses had known, 
not as the stranger who now imagines it from its 
remains, but with the familiar knowledge of one 
bred at court; and from the luxuries of the palace 
he fled into the desert, an exile, with no attendants 
or provisions to solace its gloom." 

For forty years he is a tenant of this desolate wil- 
derness, fifteen days' journey from all cities, from 
crowds of people, from Egyptian civilization. In 
this rocky region, along the valleys which yield a 
little verdure, he led the flocks of a Bedouin sheik. 
Here he dwelt with little human companionship, none 
of the ordinary means of improvement, but face to 
face with these bare rocks and sandy plains. Alone 
with God and his own spirit. Shut ofl:' from all 
other associations, he shall more and more open 
his heart to him who is monarch of the place. 
There are times when nothing so prepares a man 
for the activities of life as to make companions of 
himself and God. 

Says one : " There is no discipline of the soul for 
a great work like communing with the thought of 
God in solitude. Cromwell gained that moral power 
which made him invincible in his earlier career by 
his solitary musings upon the Bible as he worked 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



29 



his own estate among the stagnant marshes of the 
Ouse. Luther was nurtured into his sublime hero- 
ism by the solitary communings with God, through 
that old chained Bible in the convent of Erfurt. 
Paul was not suffered to begin his apostleship with 
the hot zeal of the neophyte, but was subjected to 
the discipline of solitude in Arabia. Jesus himself 
went alone into the mountain or desert to pray." 

As he sat on those bare, bleak rocks, with his 
flock feeding in the valley below, did it not seem 
to him like some strange dream of the past ? And 
was there not mixed with it all some of the pains of 
disappointment? He thought of that romantic child- 
hood; that unexpected life at the court; the pros- 
pects that awaited him; the kingdom and the glory 
to which he should some time fall heir; the renounc- 
ing of all these to save his brethren ; his hope to be 
their leader; their stupid misunderstanding of his 
purpose ; the sudden and strange miscarriage of all 
his plans; his flight; his absence from home; his 
brethren and their continued servitude. We have 
no written record of his thoughts, but we can judge 
him by ourselves. He was a man of as ardent im- 
pulses, as intense longings, of as keen ambition, and 
as restless an energy as any of us. Suppose we had 
renounced all prospects of worldly advancement to 
follow the path of duty and to save a brother ; that 
we had imperiled life to save him; yea, had even 
committed crime to promote his interests, and then 
to learn that he despised our help, betrayed our 
secrets, and caused us to miss the very good for 



30 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



which he had risked all. Would not our hearts 
have been made to bleed? Was not his heart greatly 
disturbed at the strange things which had befallen 
him ? Was the invisible God in all this work, and 
would he give power to endure ? 

To give him a more vivid consciousness of the 
presence of the invisible God was one of the objects 
in bringing him amid these desolate mountains. God 
was preparing him for his work. His faith in God 
became stronger. His unruly passions were tamed. 
When he returned to Egypt it was not in the name 
of Moses, and relying on his own strength, but in the 
name of the unseen God. Possibly he was too con- 
scious that he was the child of destiny. Perhaps 
this petted child of the court stood too high, and 
needed to descend before he could serve Him who 
hates lofty looks, whether of friends or foes. An 
unseen hand is leading the man ; and where he seems 
farthest away he is nearest to him. His intercourse 
with the aged Jethro, who most likely was a man of 
God, would do much to quiet his restless nature. 
He shall not die among the flocks, unknown to fame, 
and away from his kindred, but in God's own time 
he shall lead him forth. He must take forty years 
to learn by patient waiting to subdue his impulsive 
nature. In after-years he shall see that he has gain- 
ed by this delay. 

For forty years this man, like the Scottish boy^ 
was "God Almighty's scholar.'' Let no man think 
that God delays us unnecessarily in our preparation 
for what he has in store for us. At the proper time 



THE POWER or THE INVISIBLE. 



31 



the listening Moses shall hear the call. When he 
saw the hurning bush, and heard the voice proclaim- 
ing, ''I am the God of thy father," he hid his face. 
It is a crisis in our nature when "we discover that 
behind and above nature there is a loving God who 
says thou to me, and to whom I can say thou." 

After much inexcusable hesitation Moses agrees to 
go back to Egypt. ISTow he has the authority of the 
invisible God for his course, and his promise to go 
with him and give him success. There will be no 
running away now, for the man who has God's must 
upon him is indomitable. The elders were rejoiced to 
see his face. At the appointed time he visits the king. 
Politely and courteously but firmly, as one conversant 
with the proprieties of official life, he asks in the 
name of Jehovah that the people be allowed to wor- 
ship. The haughty king in contemptuous tones in- 
quires, " Who is Jehovah ? " He shall soon know 
of him. Moses learned of him by forty years of pa- 
tient trust and obedience in the desert. This proud 
ruler will learn of him in judgment. Jehovah is our 
best friend or worst enemy. 

Moses, as the accredited agent of the divine ruler, 
presents his credentials in the rod which becomes a 
serpent ; but the king refuses to accept. The contest 
between the so-called gods of Egypt and the invisible 
God now begins. It is a religious struggle; and how- 
ever long deferred, the result can not be doubtful. 
Moses is master of the situation ; and like a prince as 
he is, he stands face to face with the ruler of a great 
nation demanding justice for his countrymen. Be- 



32 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



hind this man, aud to enforce his deniands, are the re- 
sources of the Eternal. Ten thousand such kings 
could not contend successfully against Jehovah. His 
request is refused, and by stretching forth his rod, the 
symbol of God's presence, the pleasant waters of the 
Nile, the pride and glory of the Egyptians, become 
blood. Again that rod goes forth and the land is cov- 
ered with frogs. In their bed-chambers, in their 
ovens, in their kneading troughs, were found these 
croaking visitors. Next came the gnats or lice, and 
then the winged insects which devoured the land, but 
were, absent from Goshen. How easy it would seem 
to us to have thrust this man into prison under lock 
and key, and thus prevent these annoyances. This 
man now carries a charmed life ; and locks, and bars, 
and bolts have no terrors for him. A loathsome dis- 
ease comes next, to be followed by a grievous hail, 
such as Egypt had never before seen, that destroyed 
their grain and then threatened their very existence. 
Finally the king becomes enraged, and drives this 
man from his presence with the command to see his 
face no more, — " for in the day thou seest my face 
thou shalt surely die." Does Moses run for his life ? 
What is death to him now ? He is immortal until his 
work is done. Bravely and grandly does he meet this 
threat by announcing, " Thou hast spoken well ; I 
will see thy face no more." 

So far as we have any record, he never did. Now 
comes one of the most terrible judgments ever inflict- 
ed upon any people. Surely after such a visitation 
this man will know Jehovah. "At midnight the 



THE POWER OP THE INVISIBLE. 



33 



Lord smote all the first born in the land of Egypt. 
And Pharoah rose up in the night, he, and all his 
servants, and all the Egyptians ; and there was a cry 
in Egypt : for there was not a house where there was 
-not one dead." The God Jehovah had triumphed, 
and Egypt is defeated. The struggle had taken the 
courage, the patience, the faith of Moses, but he had 
acquitted himself manfully. 

Severe as was this struggle, with Moses the labor 
had only commenced. He starts with a people whose 
very life had been crushed out of them by their op- 
pressors. He must not only keep his own courage 
keyed up to the highest tension, but he must infuse 
life into them. They are not ready for the shortest 
route to Palestine, but like their great leader must 
be schooled in courage and patience in the wilder- ^ 
ness. 

Having arranged his people in proper order he be- 
gins his march. Could he have foreseen their fretful- 
ness, their wickedness, the discouragements which 
should come to him in the years of wandering, would 
he have gone forward with the enthusiasm which he 
there manifested ? He did not need to see. He walk- 
ed by the side of and in the presence of the invisible 
Ood, and he would control results. Enough for 
Moses to follow his guidance. They reach the sea. 
The people, are horror-stricken at their condition. 
Death in front of them, inevitable death in the rear. 
They thought of the splendid temples in Egypt, the 
magnificent monuments they had left behind, and 
BOW their bones must lie bleaching in the wilderness. 



34 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



Night comes on and spreads its protecting wings over 
these fugitives. These two armies are near each 
other with the pillar of cloud, the symbol of the in- 
visible God, between. In the darkness that settles 
down upon them Pharoah's hosts become confused. 
Chariots collided, wheels were broken and drove 
heavily. To add to the terrors of the hour a fierce 
storm was raging. In the middle of the night the 
command comes to move forward, and the wonder- 
working rod opens the waters, and these escaped 
slaves pass into the bed of the sea and walk through 
on dry land. There was no haste, for there was na 
danger. On either side was a wall of waters ; but 
Bafer than all was the invisible God back of them. 
Pharoah pushed out after them as soon as he had 
learned of their departure, and unconsciously led his 
army into the bed of the sea. When they had suffi- 
ciently advanced, at the command of God those pent- 
up waters were let loose, and rushing back into the 
channel submerged all, for there remained not so 
much as one of them. They had bruised and beaten 
these helpless bondmen ; they had butchered their lit- 
tle ones and murdered their old men with the lash. 
For years they had besought Jehovah until the heav- 
ens were as brass above them, and there seemed to be 
no hope. To-day the robber and his victim change 
places. ISTo wonder this outraged people burst forth 
into soDgs of thanksgiving when they considered 
their previous condition and their signal deliverance. 
One would think they would never forget the good- 
ness of God in their preservation, and yet strange to 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



35 



relate almost the next verse in the record tells of 
their murmering. 

After a time amid complainings which would have 
discouraged any common leader, Moses brings them 
to Sinai. Here God communicates his will to the 
people through his servant. If they will obey his 
will they shall be a peculiar people, a kingdom of 
priests, a holy nation. Moses repeated God's words 
to the people, and they all answered " All that the 
Lord hath spoken we will do." He returned unto the 
mount and received directions against the third day, 
when the Lord would come down upon Mount Sinai 
" in the sight of all the people." Says Dean Stan- 
ley : " They stood in a vast sanctuary not made with 
hands, a sanctuary where every outward shape of 
life, animal or vegetable, such as in Egypt had attract- 
ed their wonder and admiration, was withdrawn. 
Bare and unclothed the mountains rose around them. 
At last the morning breaks and every eye was fixed 
on the summit of the mount. Was it any earthly 
form ; was i? any distinct shape that revealed itself? 
There were thunders, there were lightnings, there 
was the sound of a trumpet exceeding loud ; but on 
the mount itself there was a thick cloud — darkness 
and clouds and thick darkness. It was the secret 
place of thunder." * * "Then at the loud and 
long sounding of the trumpet, Moses, called of God, 
ascended, followed by the eager eyes of the multitude, 
up into the cloud. He is sent down to restrain the 
people ; and the voice of Jehovah broke over the 
plain in articulate speech, and amid a retinue of an- 



36 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



gels proclaimed those words which men of every suc- 
ceeding generation have read with awe-struck rever- 
ence. Amidst the deterioration of the race men were 
gradually losing sight of the unity and spirituality of 
God : and so out of this very hot-bed of idolatry God 
brought the Hebrews to that rocky temple that they 
might see the storm-robe of his outer majesty, — 
might recognize his unity and observing no material 
image might lay hold on his spirituality." 

A remarkable event occurred at Sinai which re- 
veals another trait in this many-sided man. Sooner 
or later trials come to all of us, and he who expects 
to attain high eminence in the divine life comes to it 
through great tribulation. In the midst of all these 
remarkable manifestations of God's glory the people 
grievously sinned, and the brother Aaron who should 
have restrained them was himself carried under by 
the pressure of the surroundings. Jehovah, indig- 
nant at their conduct, calls them a stiff-necked people, 
and proposes to cut them off and make of Moses a 
great nation. What a proposition this must have 
been to a man encompassed with the weakness of hu- 
man nature. They were finally cut off at Kadesh- 
Barnea, and this would have anticipated that act but 
a few months. The promises to Abraham could most 
likely have been as well fulfilled in this man as in 
any other. Moses had been ambitious, and here is an 
opportunity to found a nation. The man who turned 
away from the throne of Egypt had no merely selfish 
ambition to gratify, and no proffer of the fatherhood 
of a great nation could tempt him to forget his peo- 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



37 



pie. Like a true patriot, he had cast his lot with his 
people; and he proposes to go through with them or 
to go under. With all earnestness he pleads their 
cause, reminds God of what he had done for them, 
and the bad effects their destruction would have on 
the heathen nations about them ; recalls also the 
covenant made with Abraham, never for a moment 
thinking of his own glory, but wholly of Him whose 
he was and whom he served. So intent was he that 
Ms throbbing heart burst forth in the pathetic appeal : 
" Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have 
made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive 
their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy 
book which thou hast written." ' We are not surpris- 
ed to hear of a successful result to such pleading, and 
that the Lord repented of the evil which he thought 
to do with his people." The wickedness of the act 
must be shown; so the Levites are sent through the 
camp, and three thousand of their brethren are slain. 

Wonderful as had been the experience of this man, 
and as much as he had seen of God, he yet wanted a 
deeper sense of his presence. The people sought a 
representation of God as they had seen in Egypt. Is 
it possible that Moses thought that God could take 
on shape and thus represent himself more definitely 
to his vision? If God was to be his strength, and if 
he was to represent J ehovah to the people and be the 
mediator for them, how much better could he do this 
work if he could look upon the unveiled face of that 
Being who had already been so merciful to him. He 
has promised to send his angel to conduct him, but 



88 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



this will not satisfy the heart that longs for God 
alone. Is it not the fact that the very multitude of 
promises which he had already received makes him 
bold to ask for other favors ? " Picture to yourself 
Moses prepared to meet the Lord his God before the 
sun has risen. There are no thunders, no noise of 
trumpets, no Joshua to accompany him. Nothing is 
heard save the sound of his own footsteps, and the 
beating of his own heart. He gains the summit he 
bad left but a few weeks before. The cleft made in 
the rock had now been reached. Nothing intervenes 
between him and his God, but this body, — that light 
covering of dust. While he stands there trembling 
w^ith sacred awe and waits and worships, he beholds 
the cloud of testimony coming from afar ; and there 
breaks in upon his life a moment in describing which 
the pen falls from the hands of every one except 
Moses himself. Suddenly he feels an unseen hand 
laid upon his dazzled eyes ; and lovely as the sound 
of angel harps he hears these words proclaimed: 
*The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, 
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and 
transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear 
the guilty.' The voice ceases in silence, and there is 
granted him a moment's view, the memory of which 
must have returned to him when in the new Jerusa- 
lem he saw the King in his beauty. With head in- 
clined he casts himself before his gleaming face, and 
Horeb becomes for him who is the confidant of God a 
Bethel, — a true gate of heaven." 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



39 



It seems strange to us that so faithful a man as 
Moses should have been subjected, to such severe 
trials, and to so many of them. We are taught, how- 
■ever, that ''whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." It 
is cheering to read that he endured them through 
Him who is invisible, otherwise he would have made 
ead havoc of his own good name and the welfare of 
his people. All along the journey he had been tried 
by their murmurings, their distrust, their needless 
complaints ; but most of these had come from the 
mixed multitude, — the half-breed Egyptians who ac- 
companied them from Egypt. Hitherto in the main 
bis own family have stood by him and helped to bear 
the burdens that came upon him. How terrible must 
have been the blow when Miriam turned against him ; 
and even Aaron, whose own life he had saved at Sinai, 
and who by the special honor of the priesthood with 
which he had lately been invested was under increas- 
ed obligations to stand up manfully against all crime, 
forsakes Moses and encourages the seditious Miriam. 
They were offended because Moses had more influ- 
ence in the camp than they. As members of the 
same family they could not brook that he should 
[ stand above them.. 

' If Moses had courted position there might have 

seemed a show of reason for such conduct; but he 
uniformly declined it. He was leader because divine- 
ly appointed, and not because he was a seeker of 
places. There was no man in all that vast assembly 
more disinterested than he. When Jehovah proposed 
to put him at the head of the nation he refused posi- 



40 



THE POWEE OF THE INVISIBLE. 



tively, and no one had labored more earnestly and 
faithfully for their good than he. If ever there was 
an unselfish office-holder this was the man. And 
what would Miriam and Aaron have been without 
this man ? Their present position was due to him. 
Aaron might have had some petty office among his 
people, and Miriam might have been a more promi- 
nent slave than the others ; but their present exalt- 
ed position would never have been reached had not 
Moses been called to this work. We wonder that he 
did not at once rebuke such high-handed conduct as 
it richly deserved. Not only was his own character 
grossly and maliciously misrepresented by his own 
family, who should have known him better, but 
through him they struck a blow at his own wife, who 
so far as known to us was a much more judicious 
woman than her ambitious sister. Perhaps he was 
too deeply wounded to be severe ; so hurt that he was 
speechless. There was one who saw the evil that was 
being done, and came to his relief. Calling the par- 
ties to the tabernacle he says, " Hear now my words : 
If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will 
make myself known unto him in a vision, and will 
speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is 
not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him 
will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and 
not in dark speeches ; and the similitude of the Lord 
shall he behold : wherefore then were ye not afraid 
to speak against my servant Moses ? " The guilty 
sister went out from that presence a loathsome leper^ 
and her erring brother was compelled to pass sentence 
against her. 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



41 



Days pass by and this host journey onward. After 
many afflictions and repeated discouragements they 
reach the southern border of the land of Palestine. 
Moses says to them, " Behold, the Lord thy God hath 
set the land before thee : go up and possess it, as the 
Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee ; fear 
not, neither be discouraged." So near to the rest 
which they have all been seeking, will they not 
with joyful tread push forward one more day, and 
take possession of their future home ? Alas, this 
craven-hearted people are not ready. They are un- 
willing to face the few hardships that may yet await 
them, and conceal their cowardice under the professed 
desire to know more of the land. Most of the spies 
sent forth were as faithless and cowardly as them- 
selves, and they came back magnifying the dangers. 
They sought to stone the two faithful men who had 
the courage to stand up for the right against a multi- 
tude. Again does Jehovah want to destroy this per- 
sistently wicked people. " At Sinai they had rejected 
Jehovah who led them out of Egypt ; at Kadesh they 
rejected the land of Jehovah, the land of promise, 
and wished to return to Egypt." Again Moses, the 
mediator, intercedes and saves his nation ; but the 
guilty must be punished. Their day of probation has 
now expired, and their cup of iniquity is full. When 
the people began to see what they had lost by their 
cowardice they determined to try to regain it in oppo- 
sition to the will of Jehovah, but they were signally 
defeated and smitten for their pains. They are turn- 
ed back into the wilderness. For thirty-eight long 
4 



42 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



years they wander up and down these wadys seek- 
ing a way into the land; but for them no land of 
promise this side of the grave shall ever be found. 
What a sad sight to behold that vast host recklessly 
cutting themselves off from a rich inheritance, and 
wandering about in the desert waiting to die. Their 
children, whom they asserted would all be destroyed, 
shall go into the land, drive out the inhabitants, and 
inherit the promises. Had these spies been like 
Joshua and Caleb, what a different phase would have 
been put upon Jewish history. Did they ever repent 
of their unbelief? We know not; but may hope 
they did, and inherited the heavenly Canaan. The 
Scriptures are silent concerning this portion of their 
history. We suspect God led them from place to 
place by the pillar of cloud, and fed them with manna 
until their days were numbered. Moses taught them, 
reproved them, bore with them, restrained them, and 
helped them as a kind ruler. One by one they drop- 
ped off*, falling backward into that dark abyss from 
which but one has ever brought us any response, un- 
til all were gone. 

After these years have passed a new generation is 
led out that should have learned by the errors of 
their fathers; but they are not much of an improve- 
ment. For once the self-control of Moses gives way 
and he yields to temptation ; but for this once he for- 
feits the land of promise. To suffer so great a depri- 
vation seems a severe punishment; and yet the offense 
was a grievous one. Like the others who failed of 
the land, he was kept out through unbelief ; and yet 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



43 



there were extenuating circumstances. For thirty- 
eight years he had been looking and waiting until 
this improved generation should go up and possess 
the land, and now after so many years of warning 
and training to see them manifest the same mutinous 
spirit which had kept their fathers out, takes away 
all hope. If this be their spirit why seek any longer 
to bring them into the land of Canaan? For the 
moment " he believed not to sanctify God in the eyes 
of the people," and must suffer. It was a very griev- 
ous disappointment to Moses; and more than once he 
seems to have appealed to God to reverse the decision 
until at length the command comes, " Let it suffice 
thee : speak to me no more of this matter." 

We must pass over many other important facts in 
this intensely interesting human life, and come face 
to face with its end. He has brought this people safe- 
ly through to the east side of the Jordan ; has de- 
livered to them his farewell address; has appointed 
his successor to conduct them into the land; and hav- 
ing set his house in order and completed his work, 
there was nothing left for him but to die. That one 
who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him in all 
his conflicts, says to him : " Get thee up into this 
mountain Abarim, unto mount J^ebo, which is in the 
land of Moabj that is over against Jericho ; and be- 
hold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the chil- 
dren of Israel for a possession : and die in the mount 
whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy peo- 
ple." He had lived among mountains and frequently 
ascended them, but never before for such a purpose 



44 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



^ot long since he had divested Aaron of his official 
robes that he might be ready for a new investure, but 
he had never passed this way before. He must now 
take a step into the unknovrn. But he has been walk- 
ing by faith for more than eighty years, and has 
nothing to fear now. He has been a grand old sol- 
dier ; but no body-guard attends his funeral. Even the 
loved sister who had watched over his childhood 
years and Aaron are both gone. He has himself help- 
ed to lay them away. What troops of memories 
come rushing through his mind as he begins his jour- 
ney. Does he think of the Mle, the palm-tree, and 
the pyramids ? What of his sainted mother, who so 
faithfully taught him of the true God ? Has he for- 
gotten the Egyptian court, the high honors which 
awaited him, and which with an apparent reckless- 
ness he cast aside? Does he think of that midnight 
flight into Midian without a friend to bear him com- 
pany, and his forty years of an apparently useless 
life? And that burning bush which arrested his at- 
tention, and finally sent him back to his childhood's 
home ; that terrible experience with Pharoah ; that 
night in the sea, when the storm raged in its fury, 
with the waves above them and the spray coming 
down upon them. Were any of these forgotten ? 
With these and kindred memories before him he goes 
forward, stopping now and then to take another look 
at his people. How fretful and troublesome they had 
been ; how much of sorrow and anguish they had 
brought him, and how gladly would he have given 
his life for their safety. He knew the God who had 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



45 



led him, would lead them if they would accept his 
guidance. 

As he gets farther from the camp a prospect glori- 
ous in the extreme opens up before him. He might 
not enter this land, but the Lord himself would show 
him its glory. As he gazed upon this prospect "from 
Jezreel with its waving corn to Eshcol with its luxu- 
riant vines ; from Bashan with its kine to Carmel 
with its rock-dropping honey ; from Lebanon with its 
ramparts of snow, south again to the dim edge of the 
desert, the words fell upon his ears: ' This is the land 
which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto 
Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have 
caused thee to" see it with thine eyes.' " What further 
occurred we know not. On the top of this mount, 
when his limbs grew weary and his eyes dim, God 
laid him to rest. Scarcely had he filled his soul with 
the vision of the earthly Canaan than the veil ot 
sense was lifted, and he saw the glory which he had 
asked to see at Sinai, and which no man could see and 
live. God not only buried him, but as one has said 
"buried also his grave," so that "no man knoweth ot 
his sepulcher unto this day." He died by the " mouth 
of the Lord." 'No wonder the Jewish rabbis under- 
stood it to mean " the kiss of the Lord." "As the 
father kisses the boy when he lifts him to his knee, 
so death came to Moses as a token of his Lord's affec- 
tion." Then he knew more fully than ever the mean- 
ing of his own words, — " There is none like unto the 
God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy 
help, and in his excellency on the sky." The eternal 



46 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting 
arms." To him has been accorded a glory of which no 
other human being has been deemed worthy. The 
redeemed as they stand upon the sea of glass " have 
the harps of God, and sing the song of Moses, — the 
servant of God, — and the song of the Lamb." 

"When the warrior dieth 

His comrades in the war, 
With arms reversed and muffled drum 

Follow the funeral car ; 
They show the banners taken, 

They tell his battles won. 
And after him lead the masterless steed 

While peals the minute gun. 

Amid the noblest of the land 

Men lay the sage to rest ; 
And give the bard an honored place 

With earthly marble dressed, 
In the great minster transept 

Where lights like glories fall, 
And the sweet choir sings, and the organ rings 

Along the emblazoned wall. 

This was the bravest warrior 

That ever buckled sword, 
This the most giited poet 

That ever breathed a word ; 
And never earth's philosopher 

Traced with his golden pen 
On the deathless page, truth half so sage 

As he wrote down for men. 

And had he not high honor : 

The hill-side for his pall. 
To lie in state while angels wait 

With stars for tapers tall ; 
And the dark rock pines like tossing plumes 

Over his bier to wave ; 
And God's own hand, in that lonely land. 

To lay him in his grave." 



THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE. 



47 



If you would make life a thing worth living, a 
grand success, full of noble deeds, bringing blessed 
and inspiring results, have faith in yourself, in hu- 
manity, in the power of truth, in the invisible G-od. 
Open up the windows of your nature so that divine 
influences shall come to you, and permeate your 
whole being. Gather the life-lessons that come to 
you from the grand old hero whose career has been 
portrayed in your hearing. Treat this life and the 
things that come to your senses as perishable in them- 
selves, and only valuable as symbols of that which is 
imperishable and which lies beyond. Whatever may 
happen, however dark the night or cheerless the 
day, however tempestuous the ocean or desolate 
the wilderness, come weal or woe, come joy or sor- 
row, realization or disappointment, like Moses of old 
you shall find " the eternal God to be your refuge, 
and underneath shall be the everlasting arms." 



I 



®l}je SCrainmg of tljB CljUbrBn for ttjB Qtljuri:!;. 



URIiTG the last quarter of a century the church 



I J has passed through a new experience, and to some 
extent has been compelled to revise her literature, to 
change her plans, and to adapt herself to the new 
surroundings. "While the adults are, perhaps, not to 
have less attention than before, the child is coming to 
the front as the one who is henceforth to absorb most 
of her activity. The cry of the child in her midst is 
arousing the church more and more to a considera- 
tion of its nature and possibilities, her own duty, and 
the blessed results which shall follow her enlarged 
operations. The question, "How we shall train our 
children in the Sabbath-school and the church so as 
to preserve the largest number of them to the church," 
becomes one of the most vital which can come up for 
consideration before any church-body. 

1. There must be a proper understanding of the true 
relation of the church and the school. I assume that 
the school is the school of a particular denomination- 
" It is that department of the church of Christ in 
which children, youths, and adults of the church and 
community are thoroughly trained in Christian knowl- 
edge. Christian experience, and Christian work." It 
must co-operate with the family. It must use the 
written word, and depend for its efficiency on the 




50 



THE TRAINING OF THE 



Holy Spirit. If the work of conversion has in any 
case been neglected, it must look after this ; but its 
main aim is the training and growth of disciples. It 
is not simply for children, but for persons of all ages. 
As the church includes in her services children as 
well as adults, so the church-school in turn includes 
adults as well as children. 

The church-school seems to be a necessity if we 
would reach the highest success in the Christian life. 
Where the methods of the school have prevailed, the 
youth have been better cared for, and better results 
accomplished than where neglected. Says Baxter : 

In private we can take our work gradatim, and take 
our hearers with us as we go, and by questions and 
their answers can see how far they go with us and 
what we have next to do. I conclude, therefore, that 
public preaching will not be sufficient. You may 
long study and preach to little purpose if you neglect 
this duty." Says Bridges in his " Christian ministry:" 
" The catechetical mode is decidedly the most effective 
to maintain attention, elicit intelligence, convey in- 
formation, and most of all to apply the instruction to 
the heart." The biographer of Archbishop Usher 
says: "He found catechising an excellent way to 
build up souls in the most holy faith; and that none 
were more sound and serious Christians than those 
who were well instructed in these fundamental princi- 
ples. This was the way reformation was advanced in 
Europe, and Christianity in the primitive days, and 
this will be found the principal way to keep them 
alive, to mantain their vigor and flourish." 



CHILDREN FOR THE CHURCH. 



51 



Says Dr. Ashbel Grreen : " Long observation has 
satisfied me that the principal reason why instruction 
and exhortation from the pulpit are so little effica- 
cious, is that they presuppose a degree of informa- 
tion or an acquaintance with the truths and doctrines 
of divine revelation, which by a great part of the 
hearers is not possessed, and which would, best of all, 
have been supplied by catechetical instruction. It is 
exactly this kind of instruction which is at the pres- 
ent time most urgently needed in many, perhaps in 
most of our congregations. It is needed to imbue 
eflectually the minds of our people with the first prin- 
ciples of the oracles of God, to indoctrinate them 
soundly and systematically in revealed truth, and 
thus guard them against being carried about with 
every kind of doctrine, as well as to qualify them to 
join in the weekly service of the sanctuary with free 
understanding, and with minds, in all respects, pre- 
pared for the right and deep impression of what they 
hear." (Lecture on Shorter Catechism.) 

The church must, therefore, have a school. It must 
also control it. I do not mean control in any ofien- 
sive way, but if the purposes for which the school 
was established are to be realized, then the church 
must not let go her hold. She must incorporate the 
school into her body, blood, and life. As the church 
officially controls her session, her prayer-meeting, her 
missionary organizations, and all other instrumentali- 
ties by which her work is carried forward, so must 
she control the school. It may be done directly 
through her official board, or indirectly through her 



52 



THE TRAINING OF THE 



membership. The government should be substan- 
tially the same as that of the church. But in what- 
ever way it may be done, the school must be taught 
to recognize itself as a part of the church, and respect 
its regulations. 

2. The church must support the school. It does sa 
at present indirectly by the regular Sabbath contribu- 
tions obtained from pupils and teachers. The chil- 
dren should not be sent about during the week to 
solicit money for the support of the school ; nor should 
their penny contributions on Sabbath be used for this 
purpose. These should mainly, if not wholly, be 
spent for the promotion of missionary work, and to 
cultivate in the children a disposition to give for 
the good of others. The current expenses of the 
Sabbath-school should be made a regular part of the 
church-expenses, as much as the pastor's salary, rent 
of building, light, fuel, or any other necessary expens- 
es. The church is building up herself by advancing 
the school. There is no more efficient work done in 
the church and for the church than by those who 
labor in this department. In the United States alone 
last year there were 932,383 teachers and workers in 
the Sabbath-school, who gave at least five hours per 
week to this cause. At the regular estimate of one 
dollar per week for their services they were worth 
$932,383 a week, or §48,460,000 a year to the church. 
This is more than is contributed in a single year by 
all the churches of all denominations in the same 
section for benevolent objects. Surely for such a 
body of earnest workers the most aggressive, as well 



CHILDREN FOR THE CHURCH. 



53 



as the most competent, in her borders, the church 
<jould well afford to provide adequate accommodation 
and pay running expenses. 

3. The church should furnish competent teachers for 
the school. The work is too important to leave this 
to mere accident. J^ot all who wish to teach should 
be encouraged to do so. ITot every good church- 
member would make a successful pastor. If the 
church have within her limits persons already pre- 
pared to do the work, they should be selected and 
inducted into office. If not, then training-classes for 
the proper training of teachers, so as to fit them for 
the art, should be organized ; and the church must 
see that this is done. If millions can be spent in the 
education of her ministry, it is not rash to ask that a 
few thousands be devoted to the better preparing of 
her teachers, who are to be among her most efficient 
workers. 

4. The doctrines and j^olUy of the church should be 
taught in the school. 1 have no patience with that 
emasculated Christianity which allows nothing to be 
taught to children but glittering generalities. If you 
believe in the principles of your own cchurh, the best 
you can do for your children is to teach these same 
principles to them. Let the teachers be in hearty 
sympathy with the church which appoints them o 
their work. If they are in the least disaffected, they 
should not be teachers in a church Sabbath-school. 
This doctrinal teaching should not interfere with the 
use of the International Lessons. In a Methodist 
school let these be taught as understood and ex- 



64 



THE TRAININa OF THE 



plained in keeping with Methodist theology and 
church-practice. In an Episcopal school let the les- 
son be taught from that stand-point ; and so with all 
other denominations. In addition to this general 
teaching, I do not see why a supplemental lesson, of 
ten minutes in length, concerning the church, its 
nature, practices, ordinances, and such, should not be 
taught every Sabbath; and to all the classes, and thus 
in the course of the year, or a few years at most, they 
would have an intelligent idea of the church of their 
fathers, which church, in all probability, they will be 
induced to join. Even if they should, in after years,- 
stray away from this teaching, and adopt other creeds, 
which they are not apt to do, it is better for them to 
be taught some definite system of belief than to be 
taught nothing. Dr. Dorus Clark of Boston, a ven- 
erable Congregational clergyman of extensive expe- 
rience, in an address before the Xew England His- 
torical Society, in 1878, speaks of the practice of 
teaching the children the doctrines of the church, 
and its effect upon a town in which for many je&rs 
he was pastor. " The catechism was as truly a classic 
as any other book. It was taught everywhere — in 
the family, in the school, in the church; indeed, it 
was the principal intellectual and religious pabulum 
of the people. We had it for breakfast, and had it 
for dinner, and we had it for supper. Indeed, the 
town was saturated with its doctrines, and is almost 
as much so at the present day." What were the 
effects of such persistent teaching of vital truths? 
The same writer says : The general result was, and 



CHILDREN FOR THE CHURCH. 



55 



still is, that sobriety, large intelligence, sound morali- 
ty, and unfeigned piety exists there to a wider extent 
than in any other community of equal size within the 
limits of my acquaintance. Revivals of religion have 
been of great frequency, purity, and power, and to- 
day more than one third of the population (all told) 
are members of the Congregational Church. I^ine 
tenths of the inhabitants are regular attendants on 
public worship. Thirty-eight of the young men have 
graduated from college, have entered the learned pro- 
fessions, and especially the Christian ministry, and 
several of them have risen to positions of the highest 
usefulness and houor. These, I believe, are much 
larger percentages of educated men, of Christian 
men, of useful men, than can be found in any other 
town in this or any other commonwealth." 

II. There must he a true understanding of the rela- 
tion of children to Christ and the church. The mechanic 
must know the nature of the instrument to be used, 
and also the nature of the material upon which he is 
to work, otherwise he will not secure the result sought. 
If the children are to be trained by the teacher and 
preacher so as to become efficient members of the 
church, both must understand the nature of the rela- 
tion already existing as well as the one to be sought. 
These will determine the nature of the instruction to 
be given. If the children are held in the bonds of 
depravity, then they must be taught their condition, 
and how to escape it. If they only need to have the 
children's Redeemer held up to them so their youthful 
affections may take hold of him, they will need a 
different kind of teaching. * 



56 



THE TRAINING OF THE 



There are three theories that prevail somewhat ex- 
tensively concerning the moral condition of children. 
One is the theory of special election. It early became 
prominent in the Christian church. " "Whatever dif- 
ference of opinion there might be in regard to minor 
points, all were agreed on this, that infants were liable 
to eternal wrath on account of Adam's sin, and that 
baptism, or the decree of election, or perhaps both, 
were necessary to avoid the death-penalty or wash 
away original sin." If this be true, or if it be believ- 
ed by a parent or teacher, it will stand in the way of 
the training of the child. He may be one of the 
elect ; but after all, there is the constant doubt that he 
may be a reprobate, and therefore upon him all cult- 
ure will be wasted. AVith such an incubus weiofhino^ 
him down, how can a teacher or parent work with 
the faith or energy which should characterize one to 
whom are committed such vital interests ? 

There is another class who believe that the human 
soul is only regenerated through baptism. Some, who 
do not go so far as that, believe that in some way, 
they are not very clear how, baptism is necessary for 
the child. To accept the former, and say that the 
child is saved because baptized, and that, as a result, 
unbaptized children are lost, seems to be very danger- 
ous ground. There are many persons who are bap- 
tized, and yet show plainly they are not converted ; 
while there are many others who evidently show the 
fruits of a change of heart, and yet have not received 
this ordinance. If we accept this view of the moral 
condition of children, it will also determine the nature 
of our instruction and the manner of their training. 



CHILDREN FOR THE CHURCH. 



57 



The next is the theory of universal redemption, " As 
by the offense of one, judgment came upon all to con- 
demnation, so by the righteousness of one, the free 
gift came upon all men unto justification of life." 
The children born in sin because of the descent from 
Adam, are yet heirs of grace because of their relation 
to Christ. These children are redeemed ; and being 
redeemed, they are subjects of the influence of the 
Holy Spirit. "We are not only to remember the de- 
pravity they have inherited, but the spiritual life 
which has been imparted to them. They are saved if 
they die in infancy, because Christ has redeemed 
them. Those who live are in the same spiritual state 
until they put away Grod from them, and become of 
their own choice reprobates. " Except ye be convert- 
ed, and become as little children, ye shall in no case 
enter the kingdom of heaven." 

This condition may be given substantially in the 
words of another (to whom I am indebted for more 
than one valuable suggestion in the preparation of 
this paper), as follows: "1. The child is in a state 
of unconscious safety ; the adult is in a state of con- 
scious salvation. 2. We treat the child as an uncon- 
scious and irresponsible being ; the adult as a respon- 
sible agent. 3. The child has reached his position 
of unconscious safety without choice or effort on his 
part ; the adult by the exercise of an intelligent faith. 
4. The unconscious safety of the child is God's pro- 
vision to meet the necessities of an irresponsible 
being; the conscious salvation of the adult believer, 
and the way in which it is revealed, is God's method 



58 



THE TRAINING OF THE 



of dealing with those who are intelligent and ac- 
countable." 

With such a conviction of the child's nature and 
relation, how earnestly and confidently parent and 
teacher and pastor may labor to keep the child in the 
spiritual kingdom, and so teach and train that when 
he reaches the line of responsibility he may now, 
through the power of his previous training and the 
aid of the Holy Spirit, make choice of Christ as his 
portion forever. The bent of his nature and the force 
of evil surroundings must be and can be counteracted 
by the operations of the Holy Spirit and the force of 
an intelligent Christian nurture. 

1. If the theories already named have been received 
by pastor and teacher, and if the practices of the 
school and church have been in keeping with them, 
the pastor will insist upon the attendance of the chil- 
dren at church. Were the church and school inde- 
pendent, as many erroneously suppose, he could not 
urge this with so much force ; but as the school is a 
church-service, the children need not only the school 
for training but the church for worship. When in 
the sanctuary, a part of the services must be in view 
of their presence. There may be a special service of 
ten minutes in length, or less, for their wants, as is 
the custom in some congregations ; or if preferred, a 
part of the regular services may be addressed to them, 
and a part to the adults ; or if preferred, the whole 
service may be so simple and plain in thought and 
expression that all children of average comprehen- 
sion can understand it. A portion of the singing- 



CHILDREN FOR THE CHURCH. 



59 



services should be arranged in view of their experience 
in the Sabbath-school. The reading of the Scriptures 
maybe so planned as to allow them to participate; 
and in this way and in many other ways which the 
ingenious pastor will be able to devise, their attention 
should be enlisted in the church-service, and they 
made to feel that it is as much a place for them as for 
their fathers, and that when absent without good 
reason they, as well as the others, are derelict in 
duty. 

2. At as early a period as is deemed best,^ — and 
what this period may be must in the main be left to 
the judgment of the pastor of the church, — the chil- 
dren should become members of the visible church; 
that is, in some public way and in some definite man- 
ner they should be made to realize that they have 
thereby made a public profession of their faith, have 
taken upon themselves new obligations, entered into 
new relations, and do not stand now to the church as 
they did when members of the Sabbath-school. As 
to what privilege this membership shall entitle them, 
the individual church or the denomination may de- 
termine. It might be limited to the partaking of the 
ordinances, participating in the religious services, but 
not entitling one to a voice in the government, or in 
the administration of discipline until a certain age, 
involving more maturity of judgment, is reached. 
There is a loss to the child and no gain to the church, 
as a rule, in keeping it out of church-relations. In 
the position in which children would thus be placed, 
they would not be likely to do the church any harm. 



60 



THE TRAINING OF THE 



If they have made choice of God in their hearts, it 
would be difficult to show them why they should not 
have some relation to the church. It would tend to 
develop in them the feeling of responsibility, and 
thus strengthen them for the duties that await them 
in after years. 

3. Let these young church-members be organized 
into a class or classes for special instruction. The 
tendency with much of our youthful church-member- 
ship is to allow it to run almost exclusively to emo- 
tion, instead of building upon a substratum of intel- 
ligence. Let the pastor in connection with a children's 
prayer-meeting or experience-meeting, if he chooses 
to hold such, teach the children a knowledge of the 
ordinances, fundamental doctrines and practices of 
the church, and of the nature of the new obligations 
which accompany them. Even if these have been 
taught in the Sabbath-school, let them be renewed in 
their new relation by the pastor. Let them behold 
them from this new stand-point, and their horizon 
will widen, their intelligence deepen, and they be 
better prepared for efficient church-membership. In 
some churches this is done with the baptized chil- 
dren ; but I see no reason why there may not be an 
official membership recognized, and this follow such 
membership as a training-service for future work. In 
the Protestant Episcopal Church it is enjoined that 
*the ministers of this church who have charge of 
parishes or cures shall not only be diligent in instruct- 
ing the children in the catechism, but shall also, by 
stated catechetical lectures and instruction, be diligent 



CHILDREN FOR THE CHURCH. 



61 



in informing the youth and others in the doctrines, 
constitution, and liturgy of the church." It is also 
required by the Methodist Episcopal Church that "at 
the age of ten years or earlier, the preacher in charge 
shall organize the baptized children of the church 
into classes, and appoint suitable leaders, male or 
female, whose duty it shall be to meet them in class 
once a week and instruct them in the nature, design, 
and obligation of baptism, and the truths of religion 
necessary to make them wise unto salvation." With 
pastor, teacher, and members all thoroughly imbued 
with the views presented, and seeking, through the 
methods named, and others of a similar nature, to 
carry them into efficient practice, I believe a large 
proportion of the young people would not only be 
saved to the church of their fathers, but would have 
an intelligent love for it, and in the near future would 
become the most efficient agents to preach the gospel 
at home or abroad, to manage the educational inter- 
ests of the church, promote its literature, and give 
force to all the instrumentalities which it may lawfully 
use for strengthening its cords and enlarging its bor- 
ders. 



I 

I 
t 



i 



©tjrteitiamtrf atib ^oilzQZ. 



WE have no record of the origin of the first school, 
or the first college. The circle of thought began 
in the mind of some solitary thinker. There were no 
institutions to make scholars or artists. These first 
grew up from the individual teacher, and as they mul- 
tiplied they associated themselves together. This 
individual thinker, therefore, is the first center of a 
school. Thoughts of God, the first great cause, of 
the world around him, of human duty and human 
destiny, first stir in some great mind ; and he utters 
these thoughts wherever he can find a listener — it 
may be in the groves, in the market-places, the pub- 
lic walks, the congregations of the people, or in fa- 
miliar intercourse with a friend. Thus the great 
Socrates taught, and thus indeed the first great 
teachers all taught. Those who habitually listened 
and consorted with them became their disciples, that 
is, learners, and in the end either became teachers of 
others, or carried into active life the truths they had 
learned. School, which now means an institution of 
learning, derived from skole, leisure or time remov- 
ed from public or, private business, first designated 
the teacher, then his disciples, and finally his doc- 
trines. The excitement and employment of ordinary 



64 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



life were laid aside by these men for inquiries after 
the true, the beautiful, the good. 

Thus were formed all the great schools of ancient 
philosophy. Thus were men taught wisdom. In 
this manner was human culture produced, and by 
such methods were laid the foundations of all knowl- 
edge and all education. In order to form a correct 
estimate of the learned men of antiquity, we must 
forget our modern ideas of educational institutions, 
established by church or state, and sustained by pat- 
ronage and power. We must think of self-made 
men, individual efforts, independent thoughts and 
aims, and the voluntary association of men influenc- 
ing each other by conversation, correspondence, ex- 
ample, and the common courtesies of every-day life. 
Each man developed his own powers, by his own 
effort, inspired by his own genius, using the little 
knowledge which was accessible, studying the exam- 
ples he could find, developing forms of beauty, such 
as were only possible in an age when the human 
mind awakening to a consciousness of its powers, 
instead of finding authorities in the past with which 
to be guided, created his own authorities, and like a 
discoverer of untrodden regions wandered about free- 
ly in new fields of truth and beauty. 

As there were no schools at this period, so there 
were no systems of public and general education. 
The people listened to poems recited by strolling re- 
citers and by actors in the theaters — 

" Thirteen cities claimed the Homer dead, 
Through which the living Homer begged his bread." 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



65 



They heard history rehearsed at the public games. 
They listened to their orators in the public assemblies. 
They heard their philosophers in public places, and 
listened to Demosthenes hurling his philippics at the 
king of Macedon. As they gazed upon their tem- 
ples, the seats of religious worship, and the statues 
that adorned their cities, they everywhere contem- 
plated beauty, majesty, and sublimity. The eye and 
ear were educated through religious ceremonies and 
national customs, through legend and story, through 
monuments and the proud associations connected 
with heroic deeds. 

Education among the ancients viewed as a process 
was varied, undetermined, independent, accidental, 
and strongly individual. It took the ease and free- 
dom of social life instead of that cloistered seclusion 
which is more common to us. As a result, it presents 
us men of the highest powers ; a people wonderful 
for thought, imagination, and taste, or a people of 
stern nationalism ; works of literature and art which 
have long since been acknowledged as models which 
can never lose their authority. 

These thinkers with their few disciples, these poets, 
historians, and orators, these artists working out the 
ideal conceptions of their own minds, were the only 
educators of the day in which they lived, and will 
ever remain the educators of mankind. Without 
them, what would antiquity be but a barren waste ? 
"We would see the rise and fall of nations, the din and 
tumult of battle, the march of armies and crash of 
arms ; but having passed away, they would seem to 



66 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



US but a story. The very wars of classic nations have 
an interest beyond all others, for they were wars of 
civilization against barbarism. Their poetry, their 
philosophy, their history, their splendid works of art 
still survive. 

When the Christian religion appeared a new ele- 
ment of intellectual development was introduced. 
Christ taught as the ancient philosophers taught, but 
with a power and perfection that excelled them alL 
He taught everywhere — in the fields, by the wayside^ 
in the crowded streets, upon the sea, in the syna- 
gogue, in social converse, wherever he found listeners. 
He used the simplest illustrations, taught with the 
freest method, and taught truths that had never been 
heard before. He did not organize schools, but he 
taught. He seemed to scatter his teaching to the 
winds like Sibyl's leaves; but the truths taught soon 
found a permanent lodgment and became a power 
which was destined to overthrow the old religions and 
revolutionize society. His apostles began to organize, 
and the church was instituted. The organization 
seemed a spontaneous growth from affinities created 
by a common faith and hope, and common dangers. 
From this simple beginning arose a vast ecclesiastical 
system, which spread itself over the Roman empire 
and took possession of the throne of the Caesars. 

With Christianity came a new and extensive litera- 
ture. We had first sacred writings; next polemics, 
epistles, homilies, and theologies of the fathers. Soon 
we had the orthodox and heretical classes. Both 
joined themselves to philosophy. The orthodox, has- 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



67 



ing itself on tlie sacred writings, called in philosophy 
to aid in its interpretation and exposition. The het- 
erodox, hasing itself upon some favorite philosophy, 
sought to mold the sacred writings to its own dog- 
mas. Thus Christianity in some form swept over the 
whole field of human philosophy, and connected itself 
with the profoundest questions that could engage the 
human soul. 

When the barbarians had completed their con- 
quests they were followed by the almost total loss of 
classical literature ; and although the church was not 
exempt from the prevailing ignorance, still the Latin 
language was preserved in its canons and liturgies 
and in the Vulgate. Whatever of learning remained 
was found for the most part in the church. Then, as 
now, many of the ecclesiastics were opposed to secu- 
lar learning. Gregory I. directed all his authority 
against it, and is reported to have committed to the 
ilames a library of heathen authors, i^evertheless, 
the adherence of the clergy to the Latin liturgy and 
to the Vulgate translation of the Scriptures and their 
implicit submission to the fathers, in preserving the 
Latin language, preserved the very records of that 
literature which they despised. The order of St. 
Benedict was required by their founder to read, copy, 
and collect books, without specifying any particular 
kind. They obeyed, and classical manuscripts were 
collected and copies multiplied. 

During the wars that prevailed the monasteries be- 
came the retreat of the more celebrated spirits that 
wished to engage in the pursuits of philosophy. The 



68 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



scholar of necessity became an ecclesiastic. Monastic 
institutions became the great conservators of books, 
and the means of multiplying them. It was natural 
that schools of learning should become a part and 
parcel of convents and cathedrals. 

These schools soon lost their secular and scientific 
character. Studies, teaching, everything was pursued 
in the interests of the church. They indeed had 
courses of study, the Quadrivium consisting of four 
studies and the Trivium of three. The former con- 
sisted of music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, 
Very few entered upon this course. The classics 
were considered heathen studies, hence greatly and 
soon universally neglected. The latter course con- 
sisted of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Many entered 
upon this, but few mastered it. How thoroughly 
these subjects were studied may be gathered from the 
fact that the study of music was confined to chanting 
the church-service, and astronomy to the calculation 
of Easter. Guizot tells us that " toward the end of 
the sixth century there are no longer any civil schools; 
ecclesiastical schools alone exist. These were the 
schools in the monasteries." 

The theological questions that came up of necessity 
allied themselves to metaphysics. A new method of 
theological discussion arose, a taste for philosophical 
speculation sprung up. It is no longer an appeal to 
the Scriptures alone, but to the Scriptures, the fathers, 
the traditions and practices of the church; it is an 
appeal to philosophy, to speculation, and to reason. 
Not an independent appeal, but the received dogmas 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



69 



still remaining, reason was bent and twisted so as to 
expand and strengthen them. " The principle of the 
school-men in their investigations was the expanding, 
developing, and if possible illustrating and clearing 
from objections the doctrines of natural and revealed 
religion in a dialectical method and by dint of the 
subtlest reason." 

Thus we see the rise of two classes of colleges ; one 
in the interest of taste, the other of religion; one 
brought about by the teaching of philosophy after 
the style of the academy or lyceum ; the other the 
monastic, controlled and managed in the interests of 
the church. Each had its failings and its virtues. 
The college of taste lacked organization. It was 
favorable to individuality, but did not bring about a 
general discipline of mind. The college of religion 
secured discipline, but repressed individuality. In its 
hard, stern, unscientific teaching it tended to induce 
an intense bigotry, rather than a general truth-loving 
piety. E"either of these was the true idea of a col- 
lege. 

A new era begins. Constantinople falls. The 
Greek literati, the classical scholars, were driven into 
Europe, especially into Italy. Wherever they went 
they carried with them their love of language, their 
scholarly tastes and habits. The cloistered monks 
were fascinated by such beauties of style and form, 
such poetic conceptions, such brilliant manifestations 
of classic culture. The Aristotle of the cloister no 
longer interested, as did the Aristotle fresh from his 
own land and clad in his own native Greek. Mind 



70 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



was aroused. While the classics were loved and 
learned and taught by some they were opposed by 
the church as heathenish and therefore injurious. As 
a consequence, the church itself was attacked, its 
faults made known to the world, and the way pre- 
pared for the great Reformation. Says the German 
historian (Yon Raumer), "The advancement and up- 
building of classical culture — in German especially 
— was most closely leagued with the cause of refor- 
mation in the church, so closely, in fact, that Eras- 
mus, for example, was often unable to determine 
precisely what he was advocating, whether the claims 
of sound learning or of ecclesiastical purity." Years 
after this, Luther referring to the same period says, 
"iTo man understood the reason why God caused the 
languages again to put on bloom and vigor, until now 
at last we see that it was for the sake of the gospel. 
!N"ow since the gospel is so dear to us, let us hold fast 
to the languages, and let us bethink ourselves that 
haply we may not be able to retain the gospel with- 
out a knowledge of the languages in which it was 
written." 

This awakening of the powers of the human mind, 
this influx of classical scholars, this increase of poets 
and authors, gave a new turn to the thinking of Eu- 
rope. 'New schools were necessary. The colleges of 
taste and theology were combined. Out of these 
new colleges came the great leaders of the Reforma- 
tion. " It was while they were students in the uni- 
versity that new light dawned upon their souls, and 
the Greek Testament accompanied in several instances 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



71 



by the Latin translation of Erasmus was to most of 
them the source whence the new light shone." They 
built other colleges on the same plan, combining 
learning and piety, until to-day Europe can show us 
the most perfect school-system of the age. 

The American college is the college of the reforma- 
tion. 

It aims to give the best literary culture, while pre- 
serving the purest Christianity. Such was its origin, 
and such thus far has been its history. In less than 
twenty years after the Pilgrim fathers had landed at 
Plymouth Rock a college was provided for by the 
people and named after their clergyman, Rev. John 
Harvard. Says one of their number, " After Grod had 
carried us safe to 'New England and we had builded 
our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, 
reared convenient places for God's worship and set- 
tled civil government, one of the next things we 
longed for and looked after was to advance learning 
and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an 
illiterate ministry to the church, when the present 
ministry shall be in the dust." Says Cotton Mather, 
"A college was the best thing that ever I^ew Eng- 
land thought upon." These pioneers looked to the 
future to provide an intelligent ministry for their 
children. This foresight has given New England the 
proud position she holds to-day in this far-famed land. 
This appreciation of learning, beginning with the 
common school and culminating in the college has 
been the occasion of molding the character of millions 
of human beings. It has made this section the fore- 



72 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



most in spreading an intelligent Christianity through- 
out the land. It has taught its bayonets to think and 
has caused it to be feared and hated by tyrants wher- 
ever it is known. 

The same spirit of intelligent piety which gave us 
the American college also gave us the American sys- 
tem of free public schools. Eleven years after the 
founding of Harvard College, arrangements were made 
by law for free schools. When we read the preamble 
to that law we are struck with wonder, that God 
should sift out such glorious men and send. them here 
to people and develop these western wilds. That 
preamble reads thus, " It being one of the chief prod- 
ucts of that old deluder Satan to keep men from the 
knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by 
keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these lat- 
ter times by persuading them from the use of tongues, 
so that at last the true sense and meaning of the 
original might be clouded by false glosses of saint- 
seeming deceivers, and that learning may not be buried 
in the graves of our fathers, in the church and com- 
monwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors, it is 
therefore ordered," etc. Here was learning and re- 
ligion allied in those who acted and in what they did, 
— learning cultivated not for its own sake, for it is not 
then properly pursued, but as the handmaid of re- 
ligion. 

American colleges have been Christian institutions. 
Most of them have been founded by Christian men, 
supported by voluntary contributions from Christian 
hearts, and controlled and governed by Christian 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



73 



teachers. Nine tenths of the colleges of this country 
are thus managed to-day, and among them are the 
most successful institutions of the land. Their aim 
has been to send out young men and women who 
should not only be lovers of learning and literature, 
teachers of the people and educators of the nation, 
but persons of pure hearts and clean hands, full of 
benevolence, charity, love to Grod, and love to man. 

This idea of a Christian college has been called in 
question in certain directions during the last few 
years, and lovers of Christian culture are asked to 
defend their position before the world. Some of 
those who are interested in the higher education of 
the country assert that it is not best to assume any 
positive form of religion as certain; that the claims 
of a supernatural origin of Christianity may be set 
aside by the onward march of scientific investigation, 
and that it would therefore be unwise for colleges 
and higher institutions of learning in the country to 
be committed to its support. A recognition of Chris- 
tianity such as we have recommended would hinder 
that free spirit of inquiry which should pervade the 
mind of every scientific student, and hinder that free 
and familiar intercourse between teacher and pupil 
which the liberal spirit of this age demands. 

The view then which men will take of this subject 
will be governed by the view which we take of relig- 
ion itself as to its divine origin, its essential nature, 
its evidence, its relation to man's nature and destiny. 
It will vary with the view which we take of Chris- 
tianity itself, whether it be of supernatural origin and 
6 



74 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



therefore true, or of human origin and therefore, so 
far as its important personages are concerned, its 
miracles and claims, more or less erroneous. It will 
vary also as his views are more or less enlarged of its 
relations to human culture and its friendliness to the 
highest forms of human development. 

We believe that supernatural Christianity will sur- 
vive all the attacks of enemies and the investigations 
of science ; that only in the cultivation of his relig- 
ious nature and the proper adjustment of his divine 
relations does man find his truest happiness; and that 
when rightly understood instead of being opposed to 
scientific culture and literary pursuits it is the end of 
all true science and aids in its proper development. 
Believing these things, we assert that religion should 
have a very important place in all plans for college 
culture. 

Colleges have the same duty and need of social 
religion that all other communities have. This can 
only be denied by those who deny all obligations of a 
common religious worship. The college is a commu- 
nity by itself, having an existence as fixed and posi- 
tive as any other community. If other human socie- 
ties need to be religious why not this? If it be 
proper for a great community to break itself up into 
separate societies and thus maintain religious teach- 
ing, is it not true that a society so separate from all 
others as is this college community should be provid- 
ed with such teaching ? If any household should be 
a religious commonwealth, then the college which 
takes a young man from here, putting him into a 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 75 

larger household, ought to give him a religious train- 
ing appropriate to his position and necessities. 

The college as compared with other communities 
stands in special need of religious restraints and re- 
ligious influences. The individuals composing it have 
been taken from a variety of homes and are thus 
released from the restraints of these homes and the 
influence of public opinion. They form among them- 
selves a public sentiment of their own, which though 
honest and well meant is often, even when tempered 
by religion, subject to strange whims. The passions 
are strong, the judgment weak, the will impetuous, 
inclinations to good feeble, and the tendencies to evil 
strong. Such a community, if any, needs all the ele- 
vating, restraining, and guiding influences which it is 
possible for religion to give. If Christianity can do 
anything to elevate and improve any class, especially 
is it needed for the earnest, susceptible class of youth 
who frequent our colleges. 

While it is thus needed individually, it is needed 
just as much for the order and discipline of the whole 
body. To attempt to govern a college by mere laws 
and penalties without an appeal to the higher nature 
and to the religious feelings of the pupils, is not 
always successful in the lowest sense and never can be 
in the highest. That only is true government which 
takes into the account the future and highest good of 
the student, as well as the interests of the present; 
and this can never be done when the m.oral nature is 
not addressed. But reason and conscience when ap- 
pealed to will not do much service unless they are 



76 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



quickened by religious feeling. If religious restraints 
and religious hopes are required in every comn^^^nity 
to make the work of the police less necessary, this is 
certainly true of a community whose tempers are 
easily excited and whose passions are easily led away 
when subjected to rules and penalties. If there be 
none in the college whose principles of duty are 
strengthened by religious practices and whose con- 
sciencies are made quick and tender by God's love, 
then on those occasions of conflict which inevitably 
arise between teachers and students the cause of good 
order must be in danger. 

It is the business of a college to train the character 
to moral and religious excellence. We ought not, we 
can not limit the work of the educator to the cultiva- 
tion of the intellect and the tastes. It must include 
the training of the character. The Christian man 
believes that this can only be done properly when 
this character is subjected to the authority of MDhrist. 
Christian discipleship is the condition of the best 
success. Whenever the instruction in literary and 
scientific themes can be of such a nature as to con- 
firm the Christian faith and strengthen his purposes, 
it should in all cases be used in that way. If no such 
opportunity presents itself, then the character of the 
instructor must act upon and influence his pupils; and 
the good done in this way is not one of the least of 
the benign influences which can be exerted by an 
earnest Christian teacher. Those who endow Chris- 
tian colleges may just as properly ask that religious 
teaching be given in connection with literary culture, 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



77 



when possible, as to ask that these be places of exclu- 
sively intellectual improvement. Those who do not 
believe in Christianity do not see any propriety in 
this. ■ Bnt they would exclude such teaching from 
college for the same reason for which they would ex- 
clude it from the conduct of life and for no other. 

The end of all education is not the acquisition of 
knowledge for its own sake ; it is the moral and re- 
ligious perfection of the individual. Hence moral 
and religious culture should be friendly to all kinds 
of culture. " The end of learning," says Milton, "is to 
repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to 
know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love 
him, to imitate him, to be like him as we may the 
nearest by possessing ourselves of true virtue which 
long united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up 
the highest perfection. But because our understand- 
ing can not in this body found itself but on sensible 
things, nor arrive so clearly to the knowledge of God 
and invisible things as by orderly conning over the 
visible and inferior creation, the same method is nec- 
essary and to be followed in all discreet teaching ; ' 
or in other words, " moral and religions perfection 
are the final aim of all human culture as they are of 
our existence and discipline in the human condition. 
This end is promoted by education, chiefly by the 
study of nature and of books." 

All men are not agreed as to this point, and when 
agreed upon this are not a unit as to the method by 
means of which it may be reached. Professor Huxley, 
the great apostle and high-priest of scientific culture, 



78 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEaE. 



in his " Liberal Education and Where to Find It/* 
tells us that our great business here is to find out the 
laws of nature and train ourselves to obey them. 
Life with him and with all is a game of chess. Sup- 
pose it were certain," he says, "that the life and for- 
tune of every one of us would one day or another 
depend upon his winning or losing a game of chess ; 
don't you think we should all consider it to be a pri- 
mary duty to learn at least the names and moves of 
the pieces ; to have a notion of a gambit and a keen 
eye tor all the means of giving and getting out of a 
check ? Do you not think we should look with a 
disapprobation amounting to scorn upon the father 
who allowed his son, or the state which allowed its 
members to grow up without knowing a pawn from 
a knight ? 

" Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth that 
the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one 
of us, and more or less of those connected with us, 
do depend on our knowing something of the rules 
of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated 
than chess. It is a game which has been played for 
untold ages, every man and woman of us being one 
of the two players in a game of his or her own. The 
chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena 
of the universe, the rules of the game are what we 
call the laws of nature. The player on the other side 
is hidden from us. We know that his play is always 
fair, just, and patient. But we know to our cost that 
he never overlooks a mistake or makes the smallest 
allowance for ignorance. To the man w^ho plays well 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



79 



the highest stakes are paid with that overflowing 
generosity with which the strong shows delight in 
strength. Any one who plays ill is checkmated with- 
out haste, but without remorse. My metaphor will 
remind you of the famous picture in which Retzsch 
has depicted Satan playing chess with a man for his 
soul. Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture 
a calm, strong angel who is playing for love, as we 
say, and would rather lose than win, and I should 
accept it as an image of human life. What I mean 
by education is learning the rules of this mighty 
game. In other words, education is the instruction 
of the intellect in the laws of nature under which 
name I include not merely things and their forces, 
but men and their ways, and the fashioning of the 
affections into an earnest and living desire to move in 
harmony with these laws ; for true education means 
neither more nor less than this." 

After telling us how nature begins this education, 
he proceeds as follows : " That man I think has had 
a liberal education who has been so trained in youth 
that his body is the ready servant of his will, and 
does with ease and pleasure all the work that as a 
mechanism it is capable of ; whose intellect is a clear, 
cold, logic engine with all its parts of equal strength 
and in smooth working-order, ready like a steam- 
engine to be turned to any kind of work, and spin 
the gossamer as well as forge the anchors of the 
mind ; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the 
great and fundamental truths of nature, and of the 
laws of her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, 



80 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained 
to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a 
tender conscience ; who has learned to love all beauty 
whether of nature or art, to hate all vileness and to 
respect others as himself." 

In many respects this is a high ideal of education, 
but after all a very defective one. Space will not per- 
mit a minute examination. Suffice it to say, the great 
fault is, it overlooks entirely the spiritual aspect of 
life. Many a man has lost in this visible game of 
life, but has gained in the invisible, of - which this 
theory takes no account. With a little worldly pru- 
dence and a medium amount of morality, a man will 
get for himself most of the good things of this life — 
health, riches, reputation. Indeed the highest kind 
of morality, instead of being an advantage in secur- 
ing many of these things is positively a hinderance. 
But look on the spiritual side and weigh a man's suc- 
cess in the moral balance and the whole game is 
changed. He who seems to be the soonest checkmat- 
ed, who appears to suffer the most disastrously, in 
reality has won the greatest moral victory. Men 
have jeoparded their lives for the truth; have been 
willing to lose them that they might find them; 
have stood against the world and by that act have 
made future generations their debtors. From the 
Huxley stand-point they were losers, but really were 
winners of the invisible game. The records of the 
past and the roll of the present are full of the names 
of such men, whom the world is delighted to honor 
and the luster of whose deeds shall never fail. 



CHKISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



81 



But this theory provides that the passions are to be 
trained to obey a strong will. This will must be the 
servant of a tender conscience. The possessor must 
love beauty, hate vileness, and respect others as him- 
self. How do we come in possession of all these good 
traits ? Are they born with us ? If not, they must 
be taught us and we be trained in the habit by out- 
side influences of some kind. Do all men possess 
this tender conscience? If the Huxley theory be 
true, do not all the circumstances of life tend to crush 
it ? And instead of leading men out of themselves 
and to think more and more of their fellows, would 
they not more and more be driven inward? Would 
not their natural selfishness be tenfold more inten- 
sified ? 

It takes the whole weight of Christian motive to 
make a man love his neighbor as himself. Nothing 
but a knowledge of the relation he sustains to him, 
which relation he learns from Christianity and the 
example of the great Father, can imbue him with 
such a spirit. Nothing short of a proper adjustment 
of his relation to a spiritual Father can give him a 
tender conscience. And if he had such a conscience 
it would only be in his way. So far as it prevailed? 
so far would he desire the right to prevail, and truth 
and righteousness to be established in the land. And 
how would that conscience be afi^'ected when he is 
confronted with this Hidden Player, who is either 
regardless of right, or what is equivalent, give men 
no evidence that he does not regard it ? Would not 
such tenderness be in his way, and would not worldly 



82 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



wisdom advise him to rid himself of it as soon as 
possible ? 

There is still another theory of human culture, con- 
taining many fine things, but deficient in important 
particulars, called the Esthetic Theory, with Matthew 
Arnold for its prophet. Mr. Arnold contends that 
the "aim of culture is the perfection of our human 
nature on all its sides and in all its capacities." It 
tries to find out in what this culture consists, and to 
solve this must consult the records of human experi- 
ence as expressed in science, poetry, philosophy, his- 
tory, and even in religion. This culture he finds in 
harmony with religion, for it consists in an internal 
condition of scul, in the growth of humanity proper. 
It does not rest content with any condition however 
excellent, but is constantly seeking a wider growth. 
"Not having and resting, but growing and becom- 
ing " is the perfection which nature seeks. This must 
not be an isolated, individual perfection, but must 
embrace the good of others as well as his own and aa 
the condition of his own. " As an harmonious ex- 
pansion of all the powers which make the beauty and 
worth of human nature, it goes beyond religion as 
religion is generally conceived of among us." 

This in brief is his theory. It teaches what has 
been taught under other circumstances, all along the 
history of the past. That we should forget the out- 
ward and material and set our hopes on the inward 
and spiritual, for this the wise and good of all ages 
have pleaded. The philosophers and moralists of 
Grfeece and Rome demanded it ; and a greater than 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 8S 

these said, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and lose his own soul?" 

Even this theory, beautiful as it is, has its errors. 
One of the most glaring is the place it assigns to re- 
ligion. This is simply a means to a many-sided, 
harmonious development of human nature. It can 
not thus be used. If of any value, it must be sought 
for its own sake. As some one has well said, " All 
virtue and goodness tend to make men powerful in 
this world; but they who aim at the power have not 
the virtue. Virtue is its own reward and brings with 
it the truest and higest pleasures ; but they who cul- 
tivate it for the pleasure's sake are selfish, not relig- 
ious, and will never gain the pleasure because they 
can never have the virtue." 

So then men who seek religion for culture's sake 
are simply esthetic and not religious; and they will 
never have the grace which religion adds to culture, 
for they will not have the religion. To seek religion 
for personal elevation or for the social improvement 
it brings is in opposition to the teachings ot Him in 
whom is all knowledge. One man starts in life with 
a love of art, of literature, of science, or of the pleas- 
ures which they can give him, seeking improvement 
from a merely intellectual stand-point, but not actuat- 
ed by a sense of responsibility to one higher than 
himself. The other begins with God as the great 
-center of his works, his relations and duties to him, 
and starting from this point adds to his present 
standing all the mental and moral improvement 
within his reach, feeling that besides the pleasure 



84 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



they gave him personally, he will advance the inter- 
ests of Him who gave them, benefit his fellow-men, 
and attain the end of his own existence. Which of 
them will be the higher? In which will be gathered 
the most graces of character, the truest nobility of 
soul? Man's nature is such that it will only give 
forth the deepest, richest notes, when struck by the 
hand of the divine Musician. Before he can evoke 
from his own nature the best that it can give, culture 
must cease to be mere culture and pass into religion. 
It is as true in philosophy as in religion, " Seek first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all 
other things shall be added unto you." 

Another objection to this theory is its selfishness. 
The good of others must be considered, but the start- 
ing-point is self. That toward which everything else 
must tend is self. We labor for the good of others, 
not because of their need, not for the advancement of 
God's kingdom, but simply because it is a m-cans 
necessary to our own best development. There is no 
more certain sign of growth, that a man is really 
advancing, than that he is learning to forget self in 
the thought of one higher and grander, to whose 
guidance he can commit his own interests and the 
interests of all others. 

Look at those who have been the best of our own 
race and who have put the world under obligations to 
them for the good deeds they have done. Can we 
think of such men placing before themselves as a 
worthy aim in life the harmonious development of 
human nature? Could Shakespeare have lived and 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



85 



wrought with such an aim? Could Isaiah, Paul, and 
Luther have been governed by such purposes? 
"Would such a theory represent the aims for which 
they labored, the motives that impelled, and the ideal 
whence they obtained their strength? They changed 
the face of the moral universe; but by what power? 
Not by seeking their own highest development, nor 
even by making the progress of the race their aim. 
They sought the advancement of the kingdom of 
God and the success of truth for its own sake, and 
these enhanced the good of all men as well as the 
good of every individual man. 

In the proper ordering of any system of study, 
religion, which is the impulse in man to seek God, 
and culture, which is the impulse in man to seek his 
own highest perfection, must both be provided for. 
Some tell us that any recognition of religion other 
than the most remote must interfere with the object 
of education, which is culture. Others contend that 
as religion is supreme it should be pursued even at 
the expense of culture itself. There is no real incom- 
patibility between the two. While culture should be 
the direct object of every institution of learning, this 
object is not hindered but is promoted by that recog- 
nition of religion which makes culture possible. We 
need not make our colleges houses of piety. We 
would not lower the standard of learning or diminish 
the requirements of taste and culture; we would hold 
up the most spiritual forms of Christian duty and 
Christian life as the ends to which all learning should 
be consecrated. Instead of Christianity, where prop- 



86 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLZaE. 



eriy understood, being opposed to the progress of 
science and a liberal culture, in the language of one 
of our best educators we ''assert that other things being 
equaL as endowments, time, access to an intelligent 
and relined community with all the appliances with 
which such a community provides itself, that institu- 
tion which is earnestly religious is certain to make the 
largest and most valuable achievements in science and 
learning as well as in literary tastes and capacity.*'" 

How will Christianity act favorably upon college 
culture ? It will tend to promote habits- of industry. 
Progress of any kind is the fruit ^of application. It is 
the price of success in all departments of life. The 
man who folds his hands and sets himself down to 
dream is not the man who does anything for himself 
or his race. The spirit of Christianity is one of per- 
sistent, patient work. Every figure in the Bible used 
to represent it, keeps strongly before the mind the 
idea of an active, busy, industrious life. Look at the 
miofhtv and numerous volumes that fill our libraries 
to-day, and see to what feats of toil and efibrt it has 
prompted. Other motives indeed prompt to great 
effort. Ambition in all its varied forms and- even 
wicked feelings may for a time lead to wonderful re- 
sults, but none are so intense, so regular, so permanent 
as those springing from religious duty and Christian 
self-denial. 

Christianity inculcates a truth-loving spirit. K 
there be one thing which the great founder of Chris- 
tianity kept before his disciples, and to which he re- 
turned again and again, it was his recognition of truth 



CHRISTIANITY A^^D THE COLLEGE. 87 

and the importance of seeking and pursuing it. They 
were to buy the truth and sell it not. The duty of 
examining with candor all questions that came before 
them, and of adopting and living by the truth how- 
ever unpleasant it might seem, was earnestly insisted 
upon. Under all circumstances, and cost what it 
might, they were under obligations to be loyal to the 
truth. Xo man can be a hio^h-toned Christian who 
does not come to an investigation of the facts and 
reasons of Christianity with such a spirit pervading 
his researches. A great philosopher has told us ''that 
it is no less true in this human kingdom of knowledge 
than in God's kingdom of heaven, "that no man shall 
enter it except he become as a little child." The 
kingdom of Science is not entered by force ; but to the 
patient, humble, truth-loving disciple who is willing 
to accept what he finds and believe what he sees, she 
opens her portals and discloses her treasures. The 
man who closes his eyes to the investigations of 
science, or refuses to gaze upon the trophies of art, 
or closes his ears to the enchantments of music, does 
so in spite of his Christianity. Its command, "what- 
ever things are true, whatever things are lovely, what- 
ever things are of good report, think on these things," 
provides for the highest attainments in literature and 
art, and indeed enjoins them as duties. The truth 
may be hidden away beneath the rubbish of centuries, 
far from the gaze of mortals. False glosses and false 
theories may have so obscured it that human ken can 
scarcely penetrate; ^but Christianity bids us remove 
the covering, put aside the rubbish, and search for the 



88 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



jewel wherever it may be concealed. It prompts us 
to the most rigorous search, the most patient investi- 
gation, and the most intense love when found. 

Christianity affords those conditions under which 
study is best pursued and knowledge best obtained. 
The student awakening from a night's debauch, his 
pulse wild and his eyes inflamed is in no condition for 
patient research. He who makes a god of his stom- 
ach, and feeds and stuffs the baser part of his nature, 
has no intense love for higher ranges of truth. He 
in whom hate and envy, and jealousy and malice rage 
and burn can have none of that ease, and quiet, and 
freedom from distracting cares which is necessary to 
all successful stady. Even if these are held in check 
by a regard for public sentiment and the cravings of 
ambition, there is still a hardening of the nature 
which is unfavorable to a true development. But re- 
ligion comes with all its healing, elevating, and ennob- 
ling influences, teaching us to use this world as not 
abusing it; admonishing us that this body is but the 
soul's instrument, only a means to an end, hence must 
be kept under; that these passions of our nature only 
fill their mission when brought under the influence of 
the gospel, and are made the obedient servants of the 
mind. In short, whatever is good and pure and wor- 
thy of growth in our nature is called forth. Whatever 
is base, ignoble, and designed, if let loose, to injure 
man and even destroy him is held with tight rein. 
The same Christian faith which, entering the cottage, 
awakens a love of flowers, of music, of pictures, of 
everything that is pure, also in the cultured soul in- 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



89 



creases and enlarges the sphere of its tastes. "When 
this spirit prevails in a college it makes its niembers 
more refined in all their powers and tastes, and quick- 
ens their desires to increase them. 

Christianity afibrds a proper aim and a field of use- 
fulness sufficient to arouse the most sluggish. As has 
already been intimated in the objections to Arnold's 
theory of culture, the development of human nature, 
while it may reach some is not of sufficient strength 
to take hold of the masses. Such an aim put before 
the majority of students will not make them scholars. 
They may run well for a season, but many of them 
are certain to fall by the way. When our relations 
to God are properly adjusted, the old aflection driven 
out and a new one implanted, our nature, impulses, 
plans, and aims changed, then we are lifted to a higher 
plane. All we do is sanctified to us because done for 
the honor of the Master and the good of man. Thou- 
sands to-day are toiling and struggling amid difficul- 
ties sufficient to appal other men, and yet are doing 
all this joyfully and successfully because the Master's 
work — such work and such efiect as never could have 
been produced under the influence of a mere worldly 
ambition, strong and mighty though it be. 

We need Christianity in every college to counteract 
the narrowness and one-sidedness which literature and 
science are wont to assume. Much of our modern 
culture tends in the direction of narrowness and con- 
ceit. Its very perfection seems almost to require it. 
The man who gives himself closely and exclusively to 

any one branch of study is apt to become narrow in 
7 



90 CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 

his views and see but little outside of that particular 
study. If his success in that field be great, his zeal 
for his line of thought is in the same proportion. He 
is therefore strong in his own field and weak in all 
others. This very weakness is often unknown to him, 
and his strength elsewhere tends to make him more 
positive, more self-opinionated than the man who has 
had a wider view of the great field of knowledge. 
Hence the tendencies to parties and cliques in the dif- 
ferent branches of knowledge which has called forth 
rebukes from the best of scientists. The cure for this 
sectarian bitterness is in a strong infusion of the spirit 
of Christianity. The study of C-lod in his relation to 
what is known and what is knowable in the realm of 
mind and matter, teaches the mathematician that 
there is more to be learned than mere mathematics ; 
the geologist that there is something else in the wide 
range of knowledge besides physical science ; the 
metaphysician that there is a world entirely beyond 
his range of vision. Indeed it teaches each of them 

" There are more things in heaven and earth 
Than are dreamed of in your philosophy." 

We must confess that religion and culture have not 
always been on the most friendly relations. They 
have not always, like twin sisters, walked the earth 
hand in hand, dispensing light and warmth to the 
nations. The "theologically true and the philosoph- 
ically false" of the school-men still rings in our ears. 
The records of the past show us religion and the 
church in hostile array against the teachings of scien- 
tific truth. The fate of Galileo still comes up before 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



91 



the imagination. The forgotten dogmas, which by 
the onward march of truth the church was compelled 
to leave behind, lie scattered wrecks along the path- 
way of the past. We do not forget that some of the 
fathers of this church and of other churches, which 
we could name, who now pride themselves on their 
love of learning, were arrayed in deadly conflict 
against culture, colleges, and all scientific truth. A 
few dead men, though unburied, still walk about 
groaning over the gloomy prospect and expecting our 
printing presses, our newspapers, our theological sem- 
inaries and our colleges will surely drive us to destruc- 
tion. The number of such men is limited. To-day 
the world realizes that religion and culture must go 
together. They have learned that our colleges are 
what we make them. We may have them nurseries 
of piety, and their influence shall be a hallowed one. 
"We may suffer them to become schools of infidelity, 
and the effect shall be baneful in the extreme. 

"While this has been the unpleasant condition of 
things, perhaps the church has not been altogether to 
blame. We have had sham culture and pseudo science, 
just as truly and perhaps as much of it as we have had 
of sham religion. If the theologian has set himself 
to work to defend his Bible irrespective of the teach- 
ings of science, the scientist often has been just as 
anxious to uphold his own whims, whatever may be- 
come of revealed truth. Many have pursued science, 
not for its own sake, but in search of weapons to be 
used in pulling down the strongholds of Christianity. 
Christian men have been found and may be found to- 



92 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



day, who are as ardent, honest students of science as 
are in the land and at the same time are lovers of God 
and of his truth. Humboldt would have been a broad- 
er thinker, a wider-minded man, had he been able to 
make the religious avowals which his brother made. 
Faraday was none the worse a chemical philosopher 
because he kept his Christian faith warm and pure. 
John Pye Smith and Prof. Hitchcock did as good work 
for geology as did other men of note in their day, and 
forgot not while pursuing these investigations Him 
who is the maker of all. While Dana stands at the 
head of certain schools of science in this land, he at 
the same time bows in meek reverence to Him who is 
the source of all true science. Give us the best science 
and the purest theology. The best students of science 
are Christian students. Their loyalty to truth, their 
fealty to God, their duty to themselves, require them 
to pursue the teachings of true science to its very 
depths. If the truths of science when really estab- 
lished as truth are in opposition to the teachings of 
the Bible, we must accept them. We must not, how- 
ever, throiv away our faith for stories of Cardiff 
Giants, for the whims of one man and the specula- 
tions of another. No man's whims or notions are to 
be seriously considered; but where the remotest 
teachings of scientists are shown to be facts, the hon- 
est theologian is compelled by his profession to accept 
them ; and no friend of science can reasonably ask for 
more. 

We need religious teaching to counteract the athe- 
istic tendencies of much of modern science and liter- 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



93 



ature. Whatever may be the cause of it, it is true 
that much of the so-called science, and not a little of 
the literature of the day, has an infidel tendency. The 
pupil is brought in contact with these scientific minds, 
and he must accept or reject their conclusions. It is 
therefore impossible, were it desirable, to banish all 
religious teaching from college. Every educated man 
nowadays, and many that are not educated, read 
Huxley and must accept or reject his materialism^ 
We must examine the metaphysics of Mill, the evolu- 
tion of Spencer. We must accept or reject the fatal- 
ism of Buckle. In literature we accept or reject the 
worship of genius or the worship of God. It is not 
easy to occupy neutral ground and be safe. There is 
a class of young men growing up now who seek to 
evade any decision upon the subject, or to require 
themselves to adopt either of the antagonistic theo- 
ries, comforting themselves with the idea that it was 
never so hard to come to a conclusion upon these 
subjects as now ; each side having so much for it, and 
yet so much uncertainty-; so much to be said upon 
both sides that a broad-minded, liberal man will hesi- 
tate to come to a conclusion, while narrow and igno- 
rant men only will ^'rush in where angels fear to 
tread." To yield to this kind of teaching is for the 
time being to make us practically atheistic and un- 
christian; and in some places the current is tending 
this way. I^ever should our colleges yield to any 
8uch influence or countenance any such movement. 
If our colleges should ever seem to be indifterent upon 
such a question, that very indifference would be a 
positive aid to infidelity. 



94 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



Look at the influence educated men are exerting 
to-day upon the world's good. Says Macaulay, "Take 
the Cambridge calendar, the Oxford calendar for two 
hundred years. Look at the church, the parliament, 
the bar, and it has always been the case that the men 
who were first in the competitions of the schools were 
first in the competition of life." Take the calendars 
of the colleges of this country since its settlement, 
and the men who have shone brightest in each gener- 
ation, who in all departments of mind have achieved 
the greatest results, and whose works have either been 
in the form of books, or institutions, or informed men, 
and you will find their names recorded in these col- 
lege records. The men who settled our country, who 
formed our constitution, Washington and Franklin 
excepted, who prepared declarations, negotiated trea- 
ties, administered governments, interpreted law, gave 
vigor and compactness to our government, were either 
educated in the old country or in this in the infant 
institutions planted by the wisdom and foresight of 
our ancestors. 

Could the educated minds that have informed the 
world all be marshaled before us, what an imposing 
demonstration would be presented to us. We should 
look upon Moses and Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. 
We would see Cicero and Tacitus gathering around 
them the cultivated minds of Rome. Paul reared at 
the feet of Gamaliel, would marshal in their order the 
Christian scholars trained in the seminaries of the 
early church. Jerome, and Wyckliffe, and Tyndale, 
and all those scholars who gave the nations of the 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



95 



earth the Bible in their vernacular tongue, shedding 
its light upon millions of earth's darkened inhab- 
itants, would be present. Augustine and Calvin, mas- 
ters in the realms of theological science, would occupy 
prominent places. Luther and Melancthon should 
lead the reformers; Bacon and Descartes, the hosts of 
philosophers; Grotius and Mansfield, the bench and 
bar; Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed, "Whitefield 
and Chalmers, the church-orators; Mirabeau and 
Burke, the orators of the state; Milton and Johnson, 
the poets and critics in the vast field of poetry and 
hterature. Thus under their respective leaders this 
vast army which in all departments of thought has 
wrought for man's welfare would pass in review be- 
fore us. These are the men whom the colleges have 
made. The men of to-day who are to manage the 
affairs of the nation; who are to administer in our 
courts of justice, protecting the widow and the orphan 
in their extremity ; those who are to give life and 
health to this temple of the Holy Spirit; those who 
are to sit in our legislative halls and enact laws for 
the better government of the people; those who are 
to give tone to the educational interests of our coun 
try; those who shall write our books and fashion our 
literature; those who will edit our papers, sending 
their greetings of joy and blessing into every house- 
hold; those who build up the church, make its theol- 
ogy, control its literature and manage its interests, all 
these will be as most of them have been in the past, 
college-bred men. The men who think will govern 
those who toil. What will be the condition of our 



96 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



country when all these men, filling these various places 
in society shall be sent out from our colleges with 
minds inclined to infidelity, having failed to receive 
that Christian training which every college should 
give its students. On the other hand, what a glorious 
work has been done for the world if these have all 
gone forth with pure hearts as well as well-informed 
minds; with passions, feelings, purposes, everything 
in subjection to the Great Teacher; willing to be 
guided by his counsel and to live for his honor. The 
college that does the most of this work is the one that 
does the most for humanity, approaches nearest the 
ideal of the American Christian college, and other 
things being equal must have the largest and most 
vigorous life. 

Shall we not be able to make the colleges of this 
church, institutions in which we shall have the richest 
fruits of culture, combined with the purest Christian- 
ity? Let the Church know, let the world know that we 
shall seek the highest intellectual advancement of our 
pupils; that as far as our facilities will allow us we 
shall give our students the widest range in physical 
science, having no fears that if geology, chemistry, 
and physiology be truthfully taught and properly 
studied, they will have any other efiect than to lead 
the thoughtful student to the great first cause. We 
shall have no fear that Plato or Horace, if well con- 
ned, will injure the youthful mind, hence shall aim to 
lead the student amid the classic groves of Athens 
and of Rome. In the higher regions of mathematics, 
as he traces the regularity of the planet's flight, we 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



97 



shall hope that with Kepler he may be " able to think 
Ood Almighty's thoughts after him." We shall en- 
courage him to go down into the depths of metaphys- 
ics with the assurance that he must find there one 
who existed before all mind, caused its existence and 
created and therefore understands the laws that gov- 
ern and control it. At the same time we shall aim to 
teach him, that having secured the best intellectual 
training which we can give him, if he has nothing 
else he is but one-sided and not truly and systemat- 
ically educated. The Godward side of his nature must 
not be overlooked. His relations to the Infinite must 
be looked after and adjusted. His moral nature must 
be quickend for the warfare of life. With heart and 
mind both systematically trained, this church may 
hope to send into the battle of life not merely intel- 
lectual giants nor moral wrecks, but men and women 
fearing God and hating evil, willing to work in life's 
great field and with powers well trained to do that 
work well. 

We should teach them that all scientific as well as 
all Bible truth is of God; ''that every increase of 
knowledge, whether gathered from history or from 
the world without, or from the world within, may be 
-a help toward forming a better conception of God's 
nature and of his ways, and ought to be so used. It 
we refuse to increase our knowledge, that we may so 
use it or neglect to turn it when increased, to this, 
its highest purpose, and so are content to rest in less 
worthy thoughts of the Divine character, can we ex- 
cuse ourselves from the sin of idolatry? One who 



98 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLEGE. 



really has confidence in truth, truth alike of science, 
of philosophy, of history, and of faith, will desire to 
see truth sought and advanced along all the diverse 
lines on which it is to be found. He may not see the 
point at which all these lines converge, but he has 
perfect faith they do converge whether he sees it or 
not. He can be satisfied with seeing but a little for a 
time, assured that he will yet see that little open on a 
fuller day. Believe in God and bid all knowledge 
speed. Sooner or later the full harmony will reveal 
itself, the discords and contradictions disappear." 



©IjB Snttiiag-SrljniDl ant ttjB Sjemtttartj, 



IHE mission of the church of the living God, by 



J[ means of the Scriptures, through the agency of 
the Holy Spirit, is to bring back a lost and ruined 
world to himself, thereby breaking down the enmity 
between man and God, and restoring perfect harmony. 
To accomplish this work most successfully, human 
helpers are employed. The great apostle wrote to 
his Ephesian brethren, ''He gave some, apostles; and 
some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, 
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
body of Christ: till we all come into the unity of 
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature 
of the fullness of Christ : that we henceforth be no 
more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about 
with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, 
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to 
deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow 
up into him in all things, which is the head, even 
Christ." (Eph. iv. 11-15.) 

The Sunday-school at present exists in two forms. 
As a mission-school, it is the arm of the church, 
reaching out after those who can not be reached 
directly through the pulpit, and preaching the truth 




100 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



through earnest teachers to the hearts of those who 
are unsaved. These pupils, as a rule, have had no 
parental teaching or restraint — know nothing of the 
blessed gospel, nor how it regenerates human souls. 
They will not come to the church, and the church 
must go to them. Through this agency they may be 
brought into the church, and thus be saved them- 
selves and become efficient helpers in reaching others. 

In its other and more common form the church- 
school teaches and trains its own members and the 
children of its members — rnolds their characters and 
builds them up through the divine Word. It first of 
all secures their conversion, and then develops them 
so they shall have sinewy muscles and courageous 
hearts to do the work which the church may give 
to them. It were a strange question to ask whether 
the pastor had any special work to do in carrying 
forward such enterprises or in helping to make such 
schools efficient. Says some one of this man, ''He is 
the most important officer of the individual church. 
His sympathy is more necessary in the prosecution of 
the Sunday-school work than is that of any other 
man. He can do more to help or hinder. It is there- 
fore of the utmost importance that he be fully awake 
to the need of better training and to the value of the 
true training methods." 

The pastor may help or hinder the school by the 
work done in his study; in the preparation of his 
work and its presentation in the pulpit; iu the pas- 
toral care which he has over his congregation and by 
his interest in the school itself. 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



101 



He should specially interest himself in the lessons 
that the school are studying, and make such prepa- 
ration of them that if it became a part of his duty 
to instruct the teachers' meeting he shall be freely 
prepared to do the work. If this is done by another, 
then he should be prepared for any proper questions 
which leader or teacher may propound to him. In 
the prayer-meeting exercises of the week he can so 
introduce the truths of the lesson, with its historical 
incidents, as to edify and interest the hearers. In his 
work during the week, as he meets young and old, 
he can by indirect allusion, by some appropriate sug- 
gestion, awaken a new interest in Bible study, and 
send parent and child to the Sabbath-service better 
prepared to appreciate it than they otherwise would 
be. His activity wo\ild prove contagious and arouse 
others to the same effort. 

In his study he must also familiarize himself with 
the latest and best thought of the leading men in 
Sabbath-school work, so he can at least be a leader 
to his own people. If a teacher, to be successful, is 
expected to make a study of the best journals of edu- 
cation in the land, not only must the pastor read the 
journals of his own church, but the best of other 
churches, so as to be abreast of the best thought on 
this subject. Yea, more than this; in his own study 
he must prepare to contribute articles to the columns 
of his own church -journals, so as to put them in print 
and lift up the readers who are less favored or less 
competent than himself. If he knows how to econo- 
mize time it will not require a large amount of it, 



102 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



and will bring to him a rich return in the prosperity 
of hia own school, as well as the position it shall give 
him in the counsels of his own denomination. 

As he prays in this same study for the good of his 
people and the prosperity of Zion, so he must espe- 
cially pray for the advancement of the Sunday-school 
work. It will better prepare him for his labor. It 
will awaken an interest which nothing else can awak- 
en. It will so ally him to teachers and pupils that he 
will work with them and for them with a new inspi- 
ration. By this means light will come to him in dark 
hours, and there will be helps over hard places and 
paths, out of difficult positions of which he had never 
dreamed. The man who can not pray in his work 
and for his work goes to it with but little heart and 
will never thrill the world with the intensity of his 
efforts, nor astonish it by the magnitude of the re- 
sults. 

Into his pulpit he must also carry the spirit of 
prayer, and in the hearing of the congregation let 
regular prayer be made for his Sabbath-school and 
the teachers and pupils as for any other branch of 
church-work. His very earnestness will quicken the 
zeal of those who have become sluggish and awaken 
those who have never felt any special responsibility 
for this arm of church-service. 

He can also do good work by remembering the 
Sabbath-school in connection with his other church- 
announcements. Many pastors are prompt to look 
after their prayer-meeting, official and various other 
church-gatherings, but omit any reference to the Sab- 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



103 



bath-school, although as regular as others and need- 
ing attention called to it as much as they. A stranger 
would be tempted to think that the school was an 
independent organization and had no connection with 
the regular church-work. 

Suppose in connection with this he should some- 
times urge his congregation, old and young, to attend 
the sessions of the Sunday-school. Too many of the 
people think, even at this late day, that this is a 
children's service for the young alone, and therefore 
of no advantage to them. Let them know that this 
is a Bible service for all the people, where, under 
judicious teachers, they shall have opened to them 
the truth of the gospel with all the accessories which 
a well-prepared mind can bring to its interpretation, 
and they may be induced to attend and find a spiritual 
profit of which hitherto they were utterly uncon- 
scious. 

In addition to this he might show to his congrega- 
tion what is sought to be accomplished by these 
schools, and thus not only encourage their attend- 
ance, but ask them to aid in the preparation of 
lessons at home, and much more efficient work will 
be done. 

He may preach in such a way as to greatly aid this 
branch of service. The field is so wide and connects 
itself with his end and aim in so many ways, that he 
could frequently discuss it from the pulpit in some of 
its relations, and yet give all the variety which may 
be desired. He may even go further than this, and 
select his subjects from the lessons, some part not 



104 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



presented in the teaching of the day, or some trath 
not fully or clearly developed, or some result growing 
out of the lesson for that time. iTever will he preach 
with more ease to himself or with more profit to his 
people than when discussing subjects which they 
have thought of and talked of during the week. 
They are prepared, as they could not so well be in 
any other way, to be acceptable hearers of the word. 
He need not do this continuously, and yet he should 
do it as often as consistent with the presentation of 
other truths which the people need to know. 

He may make his sermons interesting to the chil- 
dren of his church, and thus enlist them in its service, 
A few weeks since it was my pleasure to spend a 
Sabbath in the city of Davenport, Iowa. Imagine 
my gratification, when seated in a strange church, in 
a strange city, to observe the pastor beginning his 
preaching-service by a sermon (perhaps eight minutes 
in length) to the children and youth of his congrega- 
tion. A few plain truths were presented to them in 
a simple, straightforward manner, easily understood 
by the most of them, and given to them directly as 
their part of this service. After a song, the usual 
sermon was preached to the adult members of the 
congregation. This children's service was as regular 
as any other. I could have suggested but one im- 
provement. If the preacher could have left his 
manuscript at home, and talked to these waiting 
hearts and eyes out of his abundant resources, it 
would have been even better than it was. The pastor 
in this way, or in some other way, must preach to the 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



105 



young people in language suited to their capacities. 
They need feeding as well as the others. The pulpit 
is not the place for logical disquisitions on scientific 
subjects or on disputed points of belief, but for the 
earnest, simple, clear, and impressive proclamation of 
God's truth. The pastor who has lived and walked 
and communed much with Christ, and made himself 
familiar with his n^thods of teaching the people, will 
not soon become so lofty in thought or style that his 
Sabbath-school pupils can not profit by his teaching. 
The pastor who fails to reach his young people, or 
does not care to make the effort, will fail to reach 
others. They are the spiritual barometers, often, by 
whose interest, or lack of interest, he may measure 
the indications of the approaching spiritual outpour- 
ing. 

As he journeys from house to house during the 
week, meeting and mingling with his people on the 
street, in their shops, at their homes, how much he 
can do, if he be a wise shepherd, for the growth of 
his flock! He must know his teachers, must visit 
them and learn of their difficulties and their enjoy- 
ments. He must rejoice in their success and sympa- 
thize with them in their perplexities. As far as 
possible he should know the pupils of his school, and 
should prompt them to increased diligence and more 
faithful study o*f the word by the remarks he shall 
make, or the questions he shall propound. As he 
sits by the fireside in the family, he must learn of the 
school-relations of both parent and child ; must secure 
the use of the daily home-readings in the family de- 



THE SUNDAY-SGHOOL 



votions; obtain the help of father and mother in the 
preparation of the lesson; in promoting good attend- 
ance and in enforcing the instruction of both teacher 
and pastor. If the parents do not attend, he will 
learn the reason why. He will remove all difficulties^ 
as far as possible, and prepare the way for help to all. 
He will, by persistent, patient effort, induce the adults 
of the congregation to attend, and then make this 
gathering what it should be, — a Bible service, — where 
young and old, all classes and creeds, shall sit for an 
hour in the faithful study of the divine word. If he 
succeeds, he will have opened up a new source of joy 
to these families, and conferred a blessing upon them 
which shall be invaluable. 

A wise pastor will also use the children and teach- 
ers, as far as may be practicable, for his own direct 
work. They may be employed in the soliciting of 
funds for special enterprises; for missionary work; 
for the poor of the church ; for any other justified 
object. They may be used to distribute literature of 
various kinds, which the people will need, and which 
will receive more attention if sent in this way than if 
reached through the post-office, and in addition will 
bring satisfaction to the worker, and train them for 
efficient service. When this same pastor meets his 
official board, they will have broader and more com- 
prehensive views of the Sabbath -school, its wants 
and aims, and the obligations resting upon them to 
provide a suitable place for its sessions, proper appli- 
ances for teaching, and the necessary expenses for 
doing good work. If these men are with him — and 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



107 



if competent for his place, sooner or later a majority 
will be with him — he shall give a new impulse to the 
Sabbath-school work, and lift it to such a place in the 
estimation of the public that its power for good shall 
be more than doubled. 

There are other ways in which he can prove himself 
a very efficient helper. He will in some manner look 
after the literature which comes into the school and 
see that it be the kind of food upon which young 
minds should feed. If his time and strength permit 
he may teach a class in school and thus by his ex- 
ample prompt others to attend, and by his skill as a 
teacher provoke others to good works and more dili- 
gent study. Better than this, at least more feasible 
in many cases, he, in connection with other officers^ 
will be on the look-out for faithful men and women 
who are competent to do this work, and press them 
into service. He will oversee the teaching and know 
that proper doctrines are taught. It may be best for 
him to conduct a teachers' meeting weekly and thus 
prepare his teachers for a faithful presentation of the 
lesson. He may be so pressed that he can not regu- 
larly do this in person ; but as head of the church he 
is responsible for the truth presented, and ought to 
take pleasure in facing a body of earnest men and 
women, who are his helpers, once a week and in 
inspiring them and being inspired by them. He 
should organize, of the best material upon which he 
can lay his hands, a class of young people who shall 
prepare for teaching, and if he does not teach a class 
on Sabbath, let him, if possible, conduct this in per- 



108 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 



son. If his labors will not permit, then see that it is 
done by competent persons. He may occasionally, if 
not always, review the school at the close of the les. 
son so as to learn what progress the pupils are making 
and familiarize himself with them. He should be a 
better teacher than his teachers, and thus show, not 
by his position merely, but by his ability, that he is 
the right man to aid and direct them. If deemed 
best, during the week he might have a special class 
in sacred geography, in Bible history, in evidences of 
Christianity, and by lectures to them or by occasional 
lectures on Sabbaths awaken them and arouse an 
interest in Bible study and kindred subjects, and thus 
displace much of the secular literature which is a 
bane to our firesides, and promote a taste for the 
study of scripture truth. When possible he may 
attend conventions, institutes of his own and other 
churches, and thus put himself alongside of the 
broadest influences, seek to imitate the spirit of his 
fellow-laborers, profit by their experience and help 
them by his, and thus mutually promote the good 
work. 

These are short and imperfect hints of the many 
ways in which a competent man, well gifted by nat- . 
ure and well taught in theory, and well trained by 
practice, can do good service for his own church and 
the world at large through the Sunday-school. There 
are openings enough and work enough to enlist and 
employ the deepest piety and the grandest intellectual 
achievements. IN'o man, however unusual his ability, 
need fret for want of opportunity. There is no field 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



109 



of activity in connection with the church-work in 
which one may hope to accomplish better results. 
Put a man into such a place who has no heart for the 
work, — or if heart, no training, and therefore no 
adaptability, — ^what blunders must he make in his 
efforts to do good ! Take a huge elephant into a 
garden of flowers : the most delicate workmanship of 
the Creator's hand goes under his rude foot iirst. If 
there be any way in which we can send into the field 
men who shall fill the pastor's ofiice in its relation to 
the Sabbath-school as it should be filled, how the 
churches of the land shall prosper, Infidelity be made 
to hide her deformed head, and a new era of more 
intense spiritual achievement be ushered in. Can 
this be done? 

Such in brief is the kind of pastors we need, and 
such the work they can do. The theological semina- 
ries are organized for the special purpose of preparing 
a ministry that shall be efficient in bringing a lost 
world to Christ. What have these institutions been 
doing, and what are they doing to-day to render this 
arm of the church efficient for good? 

I am glad to be able to state, from personal letters 
received from professors in connection with the best 
seminaries in the land, that this matter has not been 
neglected, but, on the contrary, has been exciting the 
interest and activity of all of them. Most of these 
institutions are located near large centers of popula- 
tion, where are found the best-managed Sabbath- 
schools of the land. In these schools theological 
students readily find places, and for three years they 



110 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



have practical experience under the most efficient of 
pastors and superintendents. In some of these in- 
stitutions the professors themselves organize classes 
for the benefit of their students, and thus by a good 
example and by special teachings on Sabbath, awak- 
en them to the importance of the work, and show 
them how best to do it. 

In every respectable seminary in our country the 
professor in pastoral theology, by special systematic 
instruction, seeks to point out to his pupils the rela- 
tion of the pastor to the Sabbath-school work. In 
some the work done is very limited. One institution 
reports a single lecture ; others more. These, follow- 
ed by questions and answers on the part of teacher 
and pupils, help to give the latter some idea of the 
work before him and how to meet it. Sometimes the 
work done is general, at others more special. Says 
one teacher, " We endeavor to prepare them for the 
work of teachers in every department of Christian 
effort by giving them instruction in the Scriptures 
through all their course, in the great doctrines of 
Christianity, and by endeavoring to infuse into them 
the spirit of action." 

Another says, "I am happy to say that the most 
thorough knowledge of the ancient Hebrew and 
Greek Scriptures which the time will admit of is 
sought to be given to all. We regard this as the only 
solid basis on which a pastor can hope to be most 
successful in building up his people in biblical knowl- 
edge. He thus becomes able to be a teacher of teach- 
ers — a scribe well instructed. The special relation 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



Ill 



of pastor to Sabbath-school falls under the depart- 
ment of pastoral care, and receives its share of atten- 
tion." 

At another institution, in addition to the ordina- 
ry instruction in pastoral theology, "the subject is 
brought before the students and somewhat particular- 
ly in the weekly conferences between the professors 
and the students on topics relating to religious expe- 
rience and the practical work of the Christian min- 
istry." 

A prominent institution in one of our large cities 
reports the work done by the teachers as a course of 
lectures on " Sermons to Children," a course on the 
"Pastor and Sabbath-school," and a course on the 
"Pastor and Growth of his Flock." I have failed to 
learn the number in either case. 

Another professor reports as follows: "We give 
our students full instruction in the theory and art of 
catechetical instruction. We regard the Sabbath- 
school as one branch of the general catechetical 
activity of the church, and therefore ministers are 
to be duly prepared for it. We aim to make Sunday- 
schools training-schools for the church; that is, 
schools in which the young are to be trained and 
instructed for a Christian life and for membership in 
the church. We do not expect to reach this by mere 
natural development, but by the use of the means of 
grace and the blessings from on high." 

Another, that I take to be of like faith, says, "As 
professor of pastoral theology, I give to our students 
a course of lectures on catechetics, embracing the 



112 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



whole general subject of the religious education of 
the young and ignorant, with the view of preparing 
them to make an intelligent confession of their faith 
and take their places as communicants in the church* 
The Sabbath- school work comes under this head, and 
I press it upon them to use this as a means to that 
end; to claim the place of supremacy and direction 
for Sunday-school methods and efforts; to see to it 
that the right persons are employed in superintending 
and teaching, and themselves, as pastors, often and 
regularly to visit schools and review lessons; to hold 
teachers' meetings, &c. I insist much on the old 
methods of memorizing scriptures, standard hymns, 
and the catechism. In short, all my teaching tends 
to fixing the chief responsibility on pastors for the 
right and efficient working of Sunday-schools." 

The following is the work done in another institu- 
tion: "Our only Sabbath-school instruction is given 
in connection with the pastoral theology of the regu- 
lar course, and for lack of time has but small space 
alloted to it. We have some years tried to supplement 
this by special lectures from men eminent as Sunday- 
school workers. Two evenings were devoted thus 
one year ago. I wish more could be done than we 
are doing. My comfort is that in a city of consider- 
able size like this, our students can learn much about 
proper methods from the excellent Sabbath-schools 
connected with our churches, in which many of our 
students are teachers." 

Another reports as follows: "Instruction is given 
in this seminary respecting all questions connected 



AND THE SEMINARY 



113 



with the pastor's relation to the Sunday-school, and 
all the means by which, as such, he may contribute to 
the eftectiveness of his own schools, whether in his 
church proper or as conducted by his people in mis- 
sion-districts. But no special instruction is given 
respecting the general Sabbath-school work, except 
as this is included in the minister's relation to all 
kinds of evangelistic labor. This is on the assump- 
tion that the pastor will do much with his other 
duties, as much as most men can wisely attempt, if 
he renders the Sabbath-school work of his own 
church all that it should be. Careful instruction is 
given on this subject in the senior year, and as a part 
of the course on pastoral theology." 

Is there need of more efficient effort ? and if so, can 
anything be done? 

To the first question there can be but one answer. 
Students in a seminary, like students elsewhere, are 
limited in their resources and are tempted to shorten 
their courses as much as possible. In the multitude 
of subjects to be considered, it is not strange that but 
little time can be given to each. It is only of late 
years that the Sabbath-school work has assumed so 
much importance. In some institutions, it is feared, 
the teachers do not yet properly appreciate its value 
as an agent for saving the world. Where it has tound 
a lodgement, the managers are seeking, to the extent 
of 'their limited means,to meet this want; but all are 
anxious for increased facilities. 

One professor writes, concerning his own institu- 
tion, after this manner : ^' I should like to have, and 



114 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



hope to have, some day a regular course of lectures 
on Sunday-school management, trom men who have 
achieved practical success in that department of 
Christian work. But the funds at present are not 
sufficient." 

Says another earnest man, after stating what was 
done in his own institution: "Undoubtedly it would 
be better to do more than this if our course of three 
years were not already so crowded. We do not what 
we would but what we can. I really think there 
ought to be a regular course of Sunday-school in- 
struction given to prepare young ministers to give 
due efficiency to this branch of their work, of which 
none is more important." 

The professor of pastoral theology in the institu- 
tion of which I have the honor to be a trustee, writes 
me as follows : " Our preachers ought to be leaders 
in the Sunday-school work. This work is growing 
in importance as an arm of the church-service, and 
our preachers ought to be able to help develop its 
possibilities and utilize its forces. My own view is, 
that in every theological seminary there should be 
provision for instructing its students thoroughly in 
the design, objects, organization, management, and 
functions of the Sabbath-school and its proper rela- 
tions to the church; also in the art of teaching, and 
in those special branches of knowledge an aquain- 
tance with which is so helpful, not to say necessary, 
in teaching. To this there should be added instruc- 
tion and drill in normal work, institute work, conven- 
tion work," &c. I would like to say that at the last 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



115 



meeting of the managers of this seminary, this 
professor was authorized to meet his pupils once a 
week during the course, for the purposes named. 

Another writer asserts as follows: ''I think that 
the Sabbath-schools should first of all clearly ascertain 
what they are and what their true aim must be, and 
that they have a right to expect from the theological 
seminaries that they should so train the young minis- 
ters as to carry this out. We do this by the careful 
study of catechetics." 

Another of similar faith, in answer to the question, 
what Sabbath-schools may rightly ask of the theo- 
logical seminaries, answers: ''I think they have no 
right to ask anything, except that those who are in 
them, and preparing to be pastors, shall be taught the 
importance of the work; shall see that it does not 
fall into the hands of unsafe and irresponsible persons, 
but shall see to it that abuses are corrected and effi- 
•ciency given to wise and salutary methods; that the 
€hurch shall take the Sabbath-school as one of its 
agencies, to support, cherish, direct, and make useful 
for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. I so feel 
the immense power of this agency that I want minis- 
ters to understand that they must use their influence 
and power so as to secure the greatest good from it 
with the least amount of evil, and make it an institu- 
tion for severe work, and not a mere amusement." 

Another man, who has just come from a successful 
pastorate into the professor's chair, who is an earnest 
man as well as one fully competent in other respects 
for his place, says : While we do not find time in 



116 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



the multitude of subjects which claim attention at 
our hands for extended instruction and suggestion 
concerning the general range of Sabbath-school work^ 
yet in view of the possibilities of such work as an 
evangelistic agency of the church, it has long been 
my belief that preparation to lead it should have 
more prominence in the training of ministers. I 
hope the time will come when our seminaries will 
provide especially for this in the appointment of a 
professor who shall have special supervision of all 
such progressive agencies outside of proper church- 
duty. These should be managed and made more 
useful by the church with its pastors, well-posted as 
to means of success, at its head. Very few of our 
ministers now are qualified to conduct these depart- 
ments of Christian labor so that they may be success- 
ful, and particularly systematic and general Sabbath- 
school work." 

Were an additional year of study in our theological 
seminaries devoted to thorough examination of the 
best ways of doing what may be denominated the 
outside or missionary work assigned to us by our 
Lord's command, I am sure the result in our time 
and in this country would abundantly demonstrate 
the wisdom of such an addition. 

1. As wise workers we should utilize and make as 
efficient as possible all the desirable forces now in 
operation, and for the future add to these all that our 
resources will allow. We must conserve all that is 
good and gradually slough off all that is unproductive* 
In each of the seminaries of the land there is some 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



117 



attention given in one or more lectures to the subject 
of Sunday-school management and the pastor's rela- 
tion to it, which lectures, as a rule, are given by the 
professor of pastoral theology. However good these 
may be, — and they are good as far as known, — they 
are not sufficient. In the limited time the theological 
fitudeut, who is to be the future pastor, has his atten- 
tion scarcely more than called to the subject. Unless 
this knowledge is supplemented by contact with and 
experience in some first- class Sabbath-school under 
wise and skillful management, he leaves the seminary 
with little knowledge and no skill for the great work 
which shall soon come upon him in efficiently organ- 
izing and controlling his own school; in selecting, 
arousing, and training his teachers; in conducting 
normal classes; in classifying pupils; in the wise 
leading of the young into the church. He has all 
this to learn, not only in practice, but even the best 
theory yet to learn. He can learn it, and will, if he 
be a man of force ; but it will be at a disadvantage. 
A skillful surgeon in Prussia was once highly compli- 
mented on his skill as an oculist. He replied, ''Yes; 
but I ruined a bushel of eyes before I obtained it." 
If the pastor could receive such training as would 
open up to him the nature of this special work before 
he must enter upon it, he would thereby become more 
skillful, and possibly ruin fewer souls in obtaining his 
efficiency. 

Wherever professors have kept themselves in such 
living connection wtth this great interest that they 
feel the pulsations of this new life, which in later 



118 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



years have become intensified in the church, they 
should receive our hearty thanks. Where any exist 
and labor who are not thus active and are not doing^ 
what we have reason to think could be done, all laud- 
able means should be used to arouse them to meet the 
demands of the hour. During the last three years a 
college-teacher, while doing more than his share of 
regular college- work, has yet found time to meet a 
class of twenty-five or more young people of ardent 
impulses and a thirst for knowledge, and for two 
hours on Sabbath afternoon has taught them the sub- 
stance of the Chautauqua ITormal Course with such 
facts as his own judgment deemed best, and thus year 
by year has sent out a few workers who, as teachers 
of the teachers will do good service for the Master. 
There is scarcely a seminary w^here the professor of 
pastoral theology, if his heart be thoroughly enlisted 
in this work, can not and will not find an hour during 
the week in which to train these young men commit- 
ted to his care, who are to give tone and character to 
Sabbath-school work in the years to come. Let us 
get access to such men,— bring them into our con- 
ventions, — by the contagion of example communicate 
to them something of the zeal which we are supposed 
to possess, — if need be, reach them by personal solic- 
itations, by printed appeal to the managers of these 
institutions — in short, in whatever manner we can 
arouse them to a realization of the opportunities they 
have and the obligation resting upon them, and the 
great loss w^hich not only their own church but the 
church at large will suffer if they neglect to improve 
them. 



AND THE SEMINAKY. 



119 



As members of different churches, and therefore 
responsible for the existence of professors in these 
seminaries, or at least for the managers who appoint 
them, let us use our influence as church-members to 
imbue these men in official position with a vivid real- 
ization of the work to be done, and thus by each 
church reaching its own institutions the whole body 
will soon be leavened. 

2. I suggest further whether it is not practicable 
in most colleges for either the president or some other 
one of the faculty who may be the most competent, 
by means of his intellectual furnishing as well as his 
zeal for the work to organize a class, to recite once a 
week, on Sabbath or during the week, whose time 
shall be given to the study of the best method ot 
organizing, managing, and teaching Sabbath-schools. 
When these young people leave college and enter the 
seminary, as some of them will with the help which 
they have obtained in college, they will themselves be 
a force back of their professor, will infuse into him a 
part of their own spirit and thus help him to help 
others who have not had such advantages. Those 
who do not enter the seminary will be the leading- 
spirits in any community, and will lift up the whole 
teaching-force of any church with which they may 
connect themselves^ 

3. I know there is a great tendency in the sham 
education which is flaunted before our American 
people to want short courses of study, and cheap 
teaching ; but after all, the wants of the age demand 
rather a lengthening and deepening of courses of study. 



120 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



If, as has been suggested, another year could be added 
to the course in our seminaries for general training in 
this outside work, it would bring to us valuable re- 
sults. A pastor who is trained not only to do his 
own work in his own immediate parish, but who, at 
the same time, is apt to take hold of and push to a 
successful completion these general instrumentalities 
which concern all churches, will in the end do more 
for his own work, and at the same time be pushing 
forward the interests of the church universal. Such 
a year, with a professor skilled in the range of Sun- 
day-school work, mission-work and other such de- 
partments of church-service, would put a new spirit 
into the minds of our young ministers which would 
be productive of the most blessed results. If there be 
among us men who have means and who wish to 
invest it so as to help this work, let them provide at 
once for such a chair in one or more of the seminaries 
of their church. Whether feasible or not at this time 
it certainly is among the possibilities of the near 
future, and should be sought after with a view to its 
speedy realization. 

4. In most of the churches that are specially in- 
terested in Sabbath-school work, there is already 
a secretary, a superintendent, who gives himself to 
the general work of the Sabbath-school in that 
church. He looks after its interests, holds conven- 
tions, teaches its teachers, gathers statistics, helps to 
furnish its literature, and leads it out into new paths. 
Let such a man prepare a course of lectures in con- 
nection with his other work ; and let the faculties of 



AND THE SEMINARY. 



121 



the seminaries of the church arrange to have this 
course delivered at their institutions each year — the 
number of them to be determined by the time and 
other circumstances. If this . superintendent has been 
selected because of special fitness for some other phase 
of the work and not for this, then let some other 
competent worker be selected by him, or under his 
supervision, who shall do this work. The expense 
will be but little, and the result can not but be bene- 
ficial. Each church will thus have the opportunity of 
controlling its own teaching. It would have a man 
thoroughly alive to the work in hand, whose presence 
could not but inspire his pupils. It would so unify 
the teaching and management that good results would 
soon be seen in increased efliciency in the Sabbath- 
school work. This seems to my mind eminently feas- 
ible and practical, and needs but a united effort of the 
earnest Sabbath-school workers in each church to 
secure it. Ere we meet again in triennial session 
there should be such a lectureship in every church rep- 
resented in this body. Shall it not be undertaken at 
once ? 

5. Until these results are reached, another method 
is possible which could be entered upon at once. If 
some men of ability who are interested in Sabbath- 
school work will furnish the means, could not this 
body, through its committee, send out two men, the 
very best it can find, to visit theological seminaries 
wherever the way may be opened, and give to the 
students there assembled, free of cost to them, a 

course of lectures and instruction on this subject? 
9 



122 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



Better teaching and training could not be given them 
than they would in this manner receive. If men of 
good talents, exalted religious experience, and con- 
versant with the best methods, were selected, — and 
no others would be thought of, — would not the 
seminaries of the land only be too glad to receive 
them ? The institution with which I stand connected 
would be rejoiced to receive a course of lectures from 
Dr. Vincent, or such as he; and from my knowledge 
of other institutions the same cordial reception, as a 
rule, would await them there. If this should be en- 
tered upon at once — and I see nothing in the way of 
the efficient working of such a plan except money 
with which to employ competent men — it would be a 
great gain. If there be a man among us with a few 
thousand dollars which he wishes to invest, here is an 
opening. 

Like priests, like people. Like teachers, like peo- 
ple. Whatever help and impetus may be given to the 
Sabbath-school cause by the lay members of the 
church, after all it must be greatly aided or hindered 
by what the pastor shall do or shall fail to do. If 
the right man be in the right place, he will be con- 
stantly on the alert, avoiding the dangers that threat- 
en, seeking the best paths into w^hich he can lead his 
flock; he will nourish the needy, strengthen the weak, 
inspire the timid, and like a wise manager will so 
organize and inspirit his forces that they shall do him 
valiant service. If not competent for the work, he 
will hinder its advancement, discourage the hopeful, 
block the wheels of progress, and, without intending 



AND THE SEMINART. 



123 



it, bring to naught the efforts and labors of the most 
earnest. What he is and what he will do, will in 
good part depend upon the training he shall receive 
during his collegiate, and especially his seminary 
course. The degree of advancement which shall 
attend the Sabbath-school work of the next decade 
will depend to a large extent upon the work done by 
the theological seminaries of the land. It is our 
common interest to use existing appliances to the 
fullest extent possible, and to add to them more 
efficient agencies as our means and circumstances 
will allow. 



THE classic student is familiar with the old story of 
the cynic philosopher who was found at midday, 
in a frequented street in Athens, with burning lamp 
in his hand, hunting about as if anxiously seeking 
something, and when asked what he wanted, replied, 
"A man." He had seen children at Sparta, and had 
found women at Athens, but had never seen a man. 
The sect to which he belonged, while assuming to re- 
form mankind, began by blaspheming humanity. 
Pretending to correct the effeminacies of the age, it 
studiously outraged all the decencies of life. Diog- 
enes entered into the spirit of his order; and the men 
whom he sought were men like himself, who believed 
the only way to be virtuous was to abuse their bodies 
—to eat the coarsest food, go thinly clad, if not in- 
deed naked, and refrain from all the enjoyments and 
conveniences of life. It is easy to imagine with what 
disgust the cultivated Greek, living in luxurious 
Athens, would look upon such a rough, indecent, os- 
tentatious barbarian. 

This has been the quest of every age. We are 
making the same search to-day. ITot for those whom 
Diogenes, "the dog," called men, — not the mere forma 
of men, at all, — but for those traits and qualities and 
graces which, incorporated into our existence, shall 



126 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



help US to manifest to angels and the world the divine 
idea of genuine manhood. Let us seek to answer for 
ourselves the question, What are the i^rinci^les that 
go to make up a true riianhood\ and ichere and how ob- 
tained f " 

I have stood upon the mountain-side where nature's 
forces had left their imprint, and have gazed upon the 
rocks as they were scattered in almost endless confu- 
sion upon one side of this mountain. There seemed 
a fissure in the rock as though some internal force had 
pushed upward the superincumbent mass, and not 
having power to hurl it into space, had simply broken 
it into parts and separated one from the other. The 
fissure was wider at the top than at the bottom ; pos- 
sibly one side had been uplifted more than the other. 
The rent was not a smooth one; but protuberances ex- 
isted on one side, and corresponding depressions on 
the other. The same kind of rock was found on 
either side, and in the same relative position. These 
had possibly existed for centuries in this condition ^ 
and yet the scientific man is as well satisfied that at 
some time in the far-distant past these rocks were to- 
gether, — were one, — as he is satisfied of his own ex- 
istence. 

If by a careful examination of the elements of a 
man's nature we see exactly what it needs, and if in 
the wide universe of God we can find something that 
will exactly fit into its interstices, if we can nowhere 
else find that which will meet its wants, then we may 
safely conclude that God designed its wants should be 
met in this particular way. 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 127 

First of all, we find that this being called man has 
^physical powers, which are an important part of his 
nature. Upon these depends the great work which 
he is to do in connection with this life. While not the 
highest part of his nature, it is yet a valuable part. 
When allowed to usurp authority, when that part 
which is lowest seeks to become highest, when one 
yields himself a servant to this baser part of his be- 
ing, he ceases to be manly and becomes brutal. 
When he gives the body its proper place it becomes 
a very important helpmeet in carrying forward the 
business of life. 

This being has likewise an intellectual nature which 
goes out into the wide universe in quest of knowl- 
edge. Like bold Kepler, it seeks to read God Al- 
mighty's thoughts after him. Its aim is truth. In 
pursuit of this it goes u^ and down through the earth, 
plunges into the ocean, gazes with the astronomer 
into the heavens, sits with the chemist in his labora- 
tory, reasons with the metaphysician over his desk, 
searches the pages of political economy with the 
statesman, and with the moralist examines the laws 
of his own moral nature. Seeking truth, it must look 
with an importunate, steady, honest gaze. It must 
not condemn things because not found in its own 
philosophy, nor receive them simply because they are. 
All things that properly come before it must be care- 
fully and candidly examined; and until satisfied of 
their truth it is best, it is honest, to doubt. 

Man has also affections, by means of which he be- 
comes a social being, loving others and enjoying their 



128 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



love in return. As he is affected by the character of 
the thing loved, it is proper that lie should seek out 
the objects most worthy of his affections. That this 
love-power may be properly developed, it must go 
out toward all those who need it, without respect to 
condition. Like the genial sunshine, wherever there 
is a nook or corner, wherever there are objects which 
need but do not strictly deserve its help, liere it must 
go, lifting them thereby into more hopefulness, and 
shedding light and peace about them. This love can 
not be exercised by force of will. It yields its sweet- 
est fragrance only when evoked by an object which, 
contains something lovable. 

In addition to this, man has a religious nature, 
which, perhaps, more than any one thing that he pos- 
sesses has influenced his own individual life as well 
as changed the fate of nations. This nature presup- 
poses a being above him to whom he owes allegiance ; 
a moral nature which can distinguish right from 
wrong, and is under obligations so to do ; a belief in 
the existence of a right and wrong, and that his con- 
duct here in some way connects him with the great 
future. This power is perhaps man's distinguishing 
characteristic. The lower order of created beings 
have physical natures, they manifest some kind of in- 
telligence, have social natures which lead them to 
herd together and take comfort in each other's wel- 
fare ; but none of these, as far as known, manifest 
any moral or religious factors save man. And this, 
allow me to say, is one of the serious difficulties in 
the theories of evolution which scientific men are so 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



129 



unscientifically urging upon us. The gap is so wide 
in this respect between the animal and man, they can 
not find the connecting link. If this power be man's 
distinguishing characteristic, then could this least of 
all be neglected ? 

The complete man requires there should be order — 
a harmony in the development of these natures. If 
one eye be larger than the other, if one arm or leg be 
disproportioned, if any one part of the body be lack- 
ing in symmetry, so far it detracts from its beauty, 
and often from its ugliness. If this body be made 
the chief object of our interest, usurping authority 
that belongs elsewhere, we become degraded in our 
aims and purposes, and fail to reach the position to 
which the higher parts of our natures would lift us. 
If the intellectual receive the whole attention, and is 
developed disproportionately, it makes us the arrogant 
pedant. No man can perfectly do the work assigned 
him without the cultivation of the intellectual pow- 
ers ; but the man who trains these to the exclusion of 
the other powers of his nature becomes just as one- 
sided as the man who should dwarf one arm while 
strengthening the other. It becomes the cold-logic 
engine " of which Huxley speaks, freezing you by its 
exclusiveness, and chilling you by its arrogancy ; lack- 
ing all the genial influences which the social nature 
would have given ; of value in solving many of the 
problems in some departments of truth, but utterly 
valueless elsewhere. 

If the social nature be unduly exercised so that it 
shall give character to the whole being, it does not so 



130 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



much make one wicked as it makes him weak. It is 
not severe and arrogant as the intellect, but is feeble 
and inefficient, looking with too much lenienc}^ upon 
improper actions, and lacking strength to stand up 
against tendencies to wrong-doing. The heart is a 
very important part of us ; but it should rule through 
a well-informed intellect, guided and tempered by a 
well-balanced moral nature. It is only when, helm in 
hand, it seeks to steer this richly-freighted vessel, that 
it becomes dangerous in its nature, and tends to ship- 
wreck our brightest hopes. 

The religious element, unbalanced by the other 
forces of our nature, often runs to wild enthusiasm. 
How^ much of the evil, how many of the crimes of 
earth have been brought about by this strongest of all 
our forces ! i^Tot because injurious in itself, but not 
acting in harmony with other powers. It has given 
birth to the wildest fanaticism, and has produced the 
most degrading superstitions. Estimating itself as 
more noble than they, it would mark out a pathway 
for others, and by fire and sword compel them to walk 
therein ; holding the keys of heaven, it would allow 
none to enter who could not pronounce its shibboleth; 
throwing aside reason, it would drive recklessly on 
with no thought of danger, mistaking the gleams of 
its own phosphorescent light for the Sun of Right- 
eousness, and thus not only make itself the most 
miserable of all natures, unfitting it for the work of 
this life, but disqualifying it for the the enjoyments of 
the great future. 

Thus let either of man's natures have exclusive 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



131 



control, and true manhood is not reached. Only 
when each is wisely developed, performing its appro- 
priate work, does man reach his highest value. When 
the body becomes the servant of the intellect, when it 
uses 'this body and is itself controlled by a pure heart^^ 
and all these under the guidance of an enlightened 
conscience, do we reach the full measure of our pow- 
ers and ''quit us like men." 

Many men, indeed many church-goiug people, have- 
never arisen to the idea that true manhood is true re- 
ligion. To many religion is simply an outside gar- 
ment to be worn and thrown aside at pleasure ; not 
designed specially to help one in this life, but to pro- 
vide ai^ainst dano^ers that mav beset them at the end 
of the journey. Having joined church, they have- 
thereby received a through ticket to the land of bless- 
edness, and there is no need of any further effort. It 
is the conductor's business to see them through. The 
merchant sits or sleeps in his seat on Sabbath, pays 
his pastor, and puts his money into the collection 
when needed. On Monday, if opportunity presents- 
itself to overreach his neighbor, why hesitate 'i Re- 
ligion and business must not be mingled: each has its 
place and should keep it. 

Perhaps no one thing has turned more away from 
the gospel than this. The Christianity which such 
men practice, and that which Christ manifested, has 
but little in common. Such a man, while loud in his- 
profession, can be just as cruel at home, just as dis- 
honest abroad, as his non-professing neighbor, and 
feel no compunctions of conscience therefrom. 



132 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



Those creeds which insist so much on forms, which 
put the essence of the gospel into a mode of baptism, 
the shape of a gown, or the position of the body, and 
make all these weigh more heavily than a life of good 
deeds and a conscience void of offense toward God 
and man, are making the same sad blunder and sub- 
stituting the body for the spirit,— valuing the casket 
but despising the jewel. 

It is a good thing to be orthodox; and yet when a 
mere theoretical belief is to be compared with a life 
of practical piety, there should be no room for doubt. 
Those creed-makers who insist on a form of words 
pronounced to the ear as of more value than the genu- 
ine test of a good life, — "by their fruits ye shall know 
them," — have assuredly lost the example of the Mas- 
ter. The Unitarian lady who, in her hours of intense 
religious earnestness, could pen that battle-cry of re- 
ligious freedom which has been sounding down the 
lines during the last decade, — "Nearer, my God, to 
thee," — may possibly stand as good a chance of heav- 
en as those of us who claim to be more orthodox. 

How many, when converted and received into 
'Church, soon forget the object of such a union. It 
seems to them a magnificent hospital in which they 
are to be gathered and nursed; or, may be, a Great 
Eastern floating down the stream of time, bearing its 
cargo of human souls to the haven of rest. They 
have no battles to fight against sin ; no struggles to 
bring their perverted natures into harmony with the 
■divine will ; no obligations resting upon them to reach 
out their hands to other struo^o-lino: souls and aid them 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



133 



in their heavenward journey. Ignorant of the pre- 
cious work committed to their hands, forgetful of 
what their Master did and of what they should do, 
they sit and sing, "If I only get to heaven when I 
die;" seeming to be perfectly satisfied if they can get 
far enough across the walls so that by a deperate ef- 
fort they may roll themselves in. To what extent 
they are fitted for the duties and enjoyments of that 
life is of little importance compared with the fact of 
being there, and that not so much because they love 
heaven as from the fact they do not like hell. 

If men, especially if professed Christian men, could 
only reach the conclusion that Christianity is not a 
form, a creed, a ceremony, but a Ufe^ — a real, active 
life, — and that these forms and externalties are only 
valuable as they will develop this life. A man who is 
right physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritual- 
ly, is a righteous man. These things constitute true 
manhood. "What do they lack of being true Chris- 
tianity ? 

When God created man he designed him for some 
purpose. To accomplish this he gave him powers 
admirably adapted to secure this end. "VYe reach 
God's ideal manhood when these powers are all 
rightly adjusted and each performing its work in the 
best way. Eeligion is the wise and proper activity of 
these powers. It is no loose robe easily thrown aside; 
the pronouncing of no creed. Its virtue is not in be- 
longing to church, in being taught to repeat a certain 
ritual, not simply nor chiefly to secure a place of ref- 
uge at the end of life, but to teach us how to live so 



134 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



that we may meet the great end of existence. For 
this Christ walked, and talked, and lived upon earth, 
that he might be an example unto us, teaching us 
bow to live. With all his powers working in harmo- 
nious action, with his nature under the purest influ- 
ences, and prompted bv the best of motives, in 
harmony with the end of his being, and his heart 
beating in perfect sympathy with the heart of the 
Father, he has given us a perfect specimen of the true 
man, and in giving that has given us the example of 
a truly religious man. Some one has said, and prop- 
erly understood I see no objection to it, The Lord 
Jesns was the most finished gentleman the world 
ever saw." 

If a man has fallen and needs restoration ; if he be 
simply undeveloped and needs perfecting, in either 
case he is only reaching out after God's ideal; and 
when he attains to that he is right — he is religious. 
Whenever he is right in himself and right in all his 
relations, religion can make him no better, this is re- 
ligion. If not right in these things, — in other words, 
if not a true man, — then he needs the aid of religion; 
and when religion has accomplished all it can do, it 
has made no more and can do no more than show us 
-a man, revealing to us what Diogenes in vain sought 
to find. 

Get these thoughts into the very warp and woof 
of your natures ; namely, that from the divine stand- 
point, manhood and religion are identical. Religion so 
takes hold of all the springs of activity that there is 
no manhood without it. Manhood is so vital, so com- 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



135 



prehensive, it can not be secured without the aid of 
religion. The irreligious man, therefore, will never 
become a true man — will always fail of meeting the 
great end of his being. The sewing-machine which 
will not sew, although made for that purpose, the ax 
which will not cut, although so designed, are failures ; 
but no more so, nor as great failures as the man who 
was made for a special end — true manhood — and yet 
does not reach it. You may beautify the ax and the 
machine, you may ornament them with rich carving 
or inlay them with pearl, but they are failures never- 
theless. You may dress the human being in the rich- 
est clothing; you may put wealth at his disposal ; he 
may be genial and polite in his bearing, may be a man 
of liberal culture and have a memory well stored 
with facts, may by force of circumstances be placed 
in positions of honor and usefulness ; but if irrelig- 
ious he lacks true manhood, and so far as the purpose 
of life is concerned is a failure. 

Man is not perfect when each of the individual ele- 
ments of his nature is properly developed. He does 
not live to himself alone ; he has relations to those 
about him ; and whatever means are used to perfect 
his powers, must take into account these relations. 
The lumber, and stone, and sand may all be good in 
themselves ; but the builder would fail of his mission 
if he did not properly adjust them into the well-ar- 
ranged house, fitted to give comfort and pleasure to 
the inmates. So each man finds himself in a world 
with other men with whom he comes in contact, to 
whom he stands related, and who in turn influence 



136 CHKISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 

him. To properly adjust these relations is the ques- 
tion of the age. The trades-union, the strikes, the 
warfare between labor and capital, are all out- crop- 
pings of this truth. It may be years before these 
things shall be properly adjusted, but when adjusted 
they will all rest upon one great truth — the brother- 
hood of man. To the extent that in good faith we 
recognize and act upon this principle, to that extent 
will these difficulties disappear. 

This teaches us how to treat those inferior to us in 
place or condition, and how they are to act toward us. 
They are not to look upon them with envy, bitterness, 
or malignity. They are to learn the common elements 
of humanity that bind us together, and by all proper 
means seek to get away from their abjectness and 
reach up to a higher plane of action. Those above 
are not drive on in their pride, ignorant of the mass 
of humanity lying in their pathway, and regardless of 
the sorrow and desolation they are leaving behind 
them. These are brothers not to be despised, but 
helped. If you are wiser, you are under obligations 
to teach the more ignorant; if you are strong, you 
must help the w^eak ; if you have a far-reaching spir- 
itual vision and keenness of insight, you must help 
those who see but little, and that indistinctly. As 
was Paul, so are you and I — " debtor to the Greek 
and to the barbarian, both to the wise and to the un- 
wise." The same principle holds good with regard to 
our equals. There will be no disposition to crush 
each other, no seeking to elevate ourselves by put- 
ting others down, but like trees of the forest shall 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



137 



help each other to stand ; or, like soldiers in battle, 
shoulder to shoulder we shall go forth as one grand 
army, building each other up in the grace of man- 
hood and fighting crime and wrong wherever found. 

This principle, as soon as it shall permeate society, 
will so revolutionize governments that they shall scarce- 
ly be needed. When each man meets the ends of his own 
nature, and when each works for his neighbor as the 
law of brotherhood would require, we shall not need 
force to restrain men from trampling upon each other, 
or from devouring one another. Hence, that which 
will develop and perfect the individual man will also 
perfect society and make nations what they should be. 

There is still one point needing examination. That 
plan of life can not be a safe one which leaves out of 
account the possibilities of the future. Whatever 
may be the conditions, every man who -acts wisely 
will, as far as it is possible, make preparations for it. 
That man is best prepared for any condition who 
makes the most of the powers God has given him. 
The man who develops one power to the exclusion of 
others, is only fitted for the duties demanded by that 
power; but he who trains imagination as well as 
memory, judgment as well as will, who receives a 
generous and liberal culture, is the best man for this 
life. He does not know what may happen ; but let 
happen what may, this broadly-developed man has 
the best preparation he can have for meeting the va- 
rious changes that may await him, while the specialist 
is fitted for nothing but his specialty. Hence, any 

system of training which narrowly confines itself to 
10 



138 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



one world, when there is almost absolute certainty of 
another, would not be doing for man what his best 
interests require. The well-trained man can enter 
upon another condition with advantage so soon as the 
curtain be lifted. There can be to him no surprise, 
no consternation. He could have done no better, for 
he has done the best he could. He need to have done 
no better, for he has done what God, speaking through 
his own nature, has asked him to do. The call will 
only be to come up higher and occupy that station for 
which he has been fitted. 

Such is man's nature and loants. ^V}lat does Chris- 
tianity "propose to do for him, and in ivhat manner shall 
it be done ? 

The tree takes shape and beauty, not so much from 
outside influences as from a vital principle permeat- 
ing every part, molding all its own nature, and adjust- 
ing each atom to its proper place. This human body 
is not so much formed by a combination of various 
parts firmly united as it is shaped and fashioned by 
an indwelling soul, which peers out through the eyes, 
looks through the face, manifests itself in every move- 
ment, and gives grace and beauty to the whole. It is 
the thought which, taking the language, makes it 
manifest its own divinity and express the shades of 
meaning that it would develop through it. Is there 
not somewhere in Christianity a life-principle, a cen- 
tral infiaence, a governiug idea, which, entering into 
the heart, out of which proceed all the events of life, 
shall bring all things into subjection to itself, and per- 
meating all parts of man's nature shall develop each 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



139 



in that direction which shall best fit it for the here 
and the hereafter ? This is in the words of the Mas- 
ter himself, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy G-od with 
all thy soul, thy mind and strength, and thy neighbor 
as thyself. Upon these two hang all the law and the 
prophets." 

Bring this physical nature under the great law of 
love, and its perfection is fully reached. In the twi- 
light of the world men saw even Bible truth very 
dimly. Many imagined this body to be the seat of 
all sin ; therefore, the way to rid themselves of sin 
was to chasten the body — hence pilgrimages, flagella- 
tions, tortures -of every kind which would belittle the 
body. Even the intelligent Luther supposed he could 
find moral purity by climbing the stairway on his 
bended knees ; and while in the pursuit of it, with 
the quickness of the lightning's fiash, the grand old 
truth broke upon his mind, "The just shall live by 
faith/' 'No intelligent Christian man now hopes to 
merit divine favor by abusing his body. The law of 
love requires its best and highest culture. It is the 
instrument by means of which he must help others, 
and thus reach the supreme end of his being. In so 
far as he injures or mutilates the body, so far is his 
influence over others weakened, and to that extent he 
is criminal. "We need to carefully cultivate health 
and avoid all those means by which we will be weak- 
ened. A neglect of proper care, loss of sleep, expos- 
ure, anything which would weaken our bodily vigor, 
anything which would detract from its strength, any 
undue indulgence of appetite by which its beauty or 
value would be lessened, would be wrong. 



140 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MAXHOOD. 



This body, ^vitli its appetites, is not the governing 
power of our natures, but is under the authority of a 
higher nature, and as such is subject to limitations. 
Inside of these limitations there is nothino; wrons: in 
caring for the body — indeed not to do so would be 
criminal. The 3'oung miss who prizes beauty of form 
and grace of motion, provided she does all this so 
that she may be a more efficient instrumentahty in 
helping others, is doing nothing improper. It is only 
when she loses sight of the great end of life, and 
makes the care of the body the chief end, that she is 
letting herself down to the level of beings created be- 
neath her. 

The Bible insists upon the proper care and control 
of the body. We are to present our bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy and acceptable; not in their filth and 
pollution, but in all the activity which living beings 
manifest, and free from all sin. This body is the tem- 
ple of Grod, and the spirit of God dwelleth in it. This 
temple is to be kept holy. Whoever defiles it, him 
shall God destroy. Still greater dignity is put upon 
it. God's spirit shall hereafter breathe upon these 
mortal bodies. At his divine command this sleeping 
dust shall awake ; having been sown in corruption, it 
shall put on incorruption, and reunited with the soul 
shall live forever. 

Develop intellect in accordance with the same law. 
If there be anything which Christian love imperative- 
ly demands, it is that these mental powers be culti- 
vated to the greatest extent possible; provided this 
does not, by increasing our own power, interfere with 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MAXHOOD. 



141 



the welfare of others. Made to perceive relations, to 
acquire facts, it should go up and down the earth 
peering into desolate places, careiully examining 
things hidden from view, closely inspecting things 
that would otherwise elude observation, that it may 
gather facts with which to do the work of life. This 
intellect may be perverted. Instead of obtaining this 
power and these facts to make it more nseftil, it may 
make these the end and rest in them. The man who 
looks not beyond the acqtiisitions of intellect, but 
makes these his supreme good, is just as certainly 
guilty of wrong-doing as the man who sees nothing 
in life but the gratification of appetite. It is a higher 
end, and if choice must be made between the two, 
more desirable, but nevertheless criminal. Perhaps 
no one thing is more prevalent among scientific men 
to-day than this pride of intellect: and so far as it 
prevails, to that extent are they failing of a true man- 
hood. Using it to an end, we may^ yea, must seek the 
highest culture possible. The man who is unwilling 
to do this is crippling his own influence, and thereby 
defrauding others of what is due them, because by 
this act he incapacitates himself from doing for them 
what he ought to do. 

The spirit of Christianity, the precepts of the Bible, 
everywhere urge the vigorous cultivation of the in- 
tellect. Any attempt which frightened advocates of 
what they suppose to be trtith may make to suppress 
the progress of true science, or hinder the world's ad- 
vance in knowledge, is not the teaching of Chris- 
tianity, but the fears of men who stand in jeopardy 
for their own interpretations of Bible trtith. 



^42 CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MAXHOOD. 

The true Christmn is the true scientist. iDstead of clos- 
ing the eyes so that he can not see, he pulls off the 
blinkers so that the clear blaze of truth may have its 
proper effect. He welcomes every fact in geology, in 
astronomy, as cheerfully as the truths revealed in the 
Holy Writ. They are manifestations of the same 
God who can not err. They are records written by 
the same inspired pen, communicated by the same 
kind Father to his own children, and are both to be 
read in the spirit of docility and love. The man who 
seeks to array in deadly hostility the- truths of science 
and those of revelation, be he Christian or scientist? 
he who in holdins: to one can be \villin2: to forsake 
the other, is not honoring the Master, nor using his 
powers in accordance with his will. The great dis- 
tinction of Christianity, Avhen compared with other 
religions, lies in this, that it awakens and cherishes 
in its disciples a spirit of inquiry, a desire for an in- 
crease of intelligence. When the Saracens became 
masters of the great Alexandrian library, and were 
besought in the interests of civilization to spare it 
from the flames, Omar replied, "If it contains noth- 
ing but what is in the Koran, it is useless : if it contains 
anything more it is dangerous and hurtful, and in 
either case it ought to be destroyed." Other creeds 
hamper the spirit of free inquiry, warp the powers of 
the mind and confine it within narrow limits. Even 
the boasted liberality of the scientists of the day, men 
who ought to be broad-minded and generous-natured, 
is the most intense narrowness when compared with 
the freedom taught in the Bible. While looking in 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MAZS'HOOD. 



143 



one direction and seeking the facts of science, they 
seem unusually fair and honest ; but when these facts 
are to be classified, when the uses and tendencies of 
things are to be sought, when their connection with 
other truths and otber facts is desired, then tliey mani- 
fest the most intense narrow-mindedness. They pur- 
posely shut their eyes to all the spiritual bearings of 
these facts, and ignore, as far as possible, everything 
outside their own range. They use reasoning which, 
if applied to any other subject than the spiritual 
bearing of these questions, would be considered 
mere school-boy declamations : but because discussing 
these relations, their followers laud them to the skies. 

The Bible everywhere urges to investigation. Upon 
every page you read, in spirit if not in words, "Search 
the Scriptures" — not simply read, but examine — 
bring to bear all your resources of knowledge, your 
dialectical skill, and with your 'scientific probe pierce 
to the very centre. Its spirit is " a spirit of wisdom 
and knowledge," and as its doctrines prevail and its 
truths are known, many shall run to and fro, and 
knowledge shall be increased." "The entrance of 
thy word giveth light ; it giveth understanding to the 
simple." In addition to this, it urges to an examina- 
tion of the manifold works of God which constantly 
court us to investigation. To all of us it says, "Lift 
up your eyes on bigh and behold who hath created 
these things and bringeth out their host by numbers. 
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
ment showeth his handiwork." As if to make the 
picture more complete, and teach us that this is no ac- 



144 CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 

ciclental circumstance, it tells us that our ever-increas- 
ing knowledge shall in the great hereafter be one of 
our chief sources of joy; for there "we shall know 
even as we are known." 

The practical results of the diffusion of Bible truth 
and the spirit of Christianity attest the position taken. 
The Bible and spelling-book go hand in hand. It 
was the wish of John Knox that on every hill-top in 
Scotland he might plant the school and the church ; 
and wherever the church has gone the school-house 
• has quickly followed in its track. From the days of 
Charlemagne until the present, the founders of our 
colleges and universities have been men of Christian 
faith and life. There can be no greater honor than 
having created these well-springs of intellect w^hich 
send out, year after year, streams of truth to bless and 
sanctify the world. This honor has not been left to 
advocates of infidelity or the opposers of Christianity, 
but to men w^ho believed these mental powers survived 
the body. The common schools of our land, which 
have brought joy and gladness to many households^ 
these "people's colleges" dotting every hill-side and 
blessing every valley, are the direct offspring of Chris- 
tian activity ; and those to-day who are seeking to 
strike them the fatal blow are not men of clean hands 
and pure hearts, not men of strong faith in God and 
love of humanity, but men who ignore God and de- 
spise sacred things. More than this, the learning 
that comes to us from the past, the writings of poets 
and orators that are read in the colleges of the land, 
these master-pieces of Greek and Latin literature are 



CHEISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



145 



ours because the church preserved them for us. The 
historian of this period tells us, "In the succeeding 
centuries, the advancement and upholding of classical 
culture, in Germany especially, was most closely 
leagued with the cause of the reformation in the 
church; so closely, in fact, that Erasmus was often 
unable to determine precisely what he was advocat- 
ing, whether the claims of sound learning or eccle- 
siastical purity." 

The spirit of Christianity develops and perfects the 
affectional nature. As the genial rays of the sum- 
mer's sun lift up the drooping plant, or open up to 
receive its baptism of heat and life the budding 
flower, so does the influence of the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, beaming in upon man's affections, inspire them 
to a blessed activity. It is not a religion of rites and 
ceremonies, but of love. It teaches us that we can not 
love too much. God is love, and he that loveth is 
born of God." These affections may be perverted, as 
may all the other powers of our nature. We may 
love improper things, or too exclusively, but not too 
much. The sun shines upon the mountain-tops as 
well as in the valley, in the palace of the rich as well 
as in the hut of poverty or den of shame, and is not 
injured thereby. Our love must in like manner go 
out after all who need it, whoever they may be, with 
a purpose to aid and bless them by its coming. It 
must love most intensely and complacently those 
things that are worthy of that love, and all others 
must be loved with the intent to make them worthy. 
"Whatsoever things are lovely, think on these things." 



146 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



We must, as God requires, subordinate all the lower 
to the higher. 

That must be a mistaken theology which would 
teach us that because we love our children too much, 
or an}^ of the desirable things of this life, therefore 
God takes them. Can we do this ? If God did not 
intend that the mother should intensely love her child, 
why did he implant in her nature that strongest of all 
earthly affections? Our reason revolts against such 
an interpretation of " Our Father in heaven." It may 
have been loved too exclusively ; we maj^ have forgot- 
ten the Creator in our affection for the creature. Es- 
pecially should these affections go out to Him who is 
the giver, who is worthy of all love, and the love to 
others must be subordinate to the love manifested to 
him. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy 
neighbor as thyself." ITone love so intelligently, so 
purely, as those whose hearts have been inflamed with 
an affection from the Holy Spirit. 

Can the religious element receive a more hearty de- 
velopment under any other system ? Look at the 
creeds and devices that have been created to meet 
this want. Judge them by their fruits. Have they 
given a pure-hearted, noble-bodied, intelligent, devot- 
ed manhood ? If they have lifted up in one direction, 
they have dragged down in another. If one power 
has been unusually developed, it has been at the ex- 
pense of others. E'arrowness, exclusiveness, illiber- 
ality, one-sidedness, have been the invariable results. 
Examine their products from the first rude attempt to 
the last and most finished specimens, and they all bear 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



147 



these marks. Christianity comes claiming to meet all 
these wants of our being ; puts into exercise all these 
powers, restraining one and urging the other, as its 
condition demands ; brings before us proper ends, and 
plies us with proper incentives; lifts us up to behold 
one worthy of our worship, possessing in himself all 
the elements that our hearts need, — so great and high 
yet so lovely and attractive, — who enters into the 
nearest and dearest relationship with us, and adjusts 
our lives by his own strength and beauty, that they 
shall be like his ; lifts us up when we fall, encour- 
ages us when we are feeble, supports us in weakness? 
puts before us the grandest ideal that was ever pre- 
sented to mortal man, and in the person of Jesus 
Christ shows us how that highest ideal may be com- 
pletely realized. Human history has never recorded, 
human eyes have never seen any other force in all the 
systems of men which can so bless and aid, can so 
meet the cravings of man's spiritual nature as this. 
fearfully blinded must he that heart lohich could rudely 
push it aside! Given this being with his bodily pow- 
ers all brought under the great law of love, using 
them not as an end but a means, and therefore sub- 
ordinated to his higher nature, with the intellect full 
of eyes searching for knowledge in all directions, sit- 
ting like an impartial judge to discern truth from 
error; swayed by no prejudices and warped by no 
sinister designs, doing all, not from its own gratifica- 
tion, but in obedience to the great end of its being, 
with a heart alive to the wants of its fellows, and go- 
ing out after them, blessing them with its sunshine 



148 



CHRISTIANITY THE TEUE MANHOOD. 



and glacliiess, soothing them in their sorrows and 
cheering them in their desolations, with a spiritual 
nature reaching up toward that which is highest and 
best of all, finding its truest and richest enjoyment 
in becomino^ assimilated to the divine Beins; who 
gave life to all, and we have a sight wdiich angel& 
could behold and rejoice, which God designed should 
be seen, and which was seen when the " Son of Mary," 
the true man, walked and talked upon earth. To ac- 
complish this the heavens and earth are laid under 
requisition. To prevent this the powers of hell are at 
work. To secnre this is the mission you and I, each 
for himself, has upon this earth. Gould a greater 
purpose inspire any human heart to action? 

The Christian love which gives us the perfect indi- 
vidual, must give us a perfect society. That can not 
be an imperfect aggregate where each unit performs 
its allotted task. Where the good of each has been 
secured, the good of all has not been neglected. 
"Where each one does right, no one is hindered, na 
rights are violated, no laws broken, but the machin- 
ery of government moves on in silent majesty, with 
no friction to destroy its harmony, no perverted ad-^ 
justments to hinder its useful ness. 

The same principles will produce a proper comity of 
nations. If we ever reach the condition of true 
statesmanship, if there ever comes a time when men 
shall not seek to build up their own governments by 
destroying others, if thej' ever deal with each as the 
interests of each demand, it will be when this princi- 
ple of Christian love prevails, and when each feel& 



CHRISTIAXITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



149 



under obligation to labor for the well-being of tlie 
other, thereby advancing its own interest as one of 
the great brotherliood of nations. 

The facts of history prove conclusively that the 
only true national progress has been in obedience to 
the teachings of Christianity. The world never had 
such an ideal — never dreamed of such — until the e-os- 
pel came proclaiming a new order of things ; a reign 
of righteousness, reached through God's redeeming 
grace. The Bible is full of it. In the literature of 
heathen nations you find many noble sentiments, 
much profound philosophy, but no bow of promise in 
the future. Their golden age was in the past. There 
was no good time coming, for it had come and gone. 
In pagan teaching there is no recognition of the 
great brotherhood of man ; nothing of common in- 
terests and common duties ; nothing of the obligation 
resting upon every man to help his fellow ; " debtor 
to both G-reek and Jew," to spend and be spent for 
the w^elfare of others, thus hastening on the coming 
of the glorious future. Says Max Muller, The word 
mankind never passed the lips of Socrates, or Plato, 
or Aristotle. Where the Greeks saw barbarians, we 
see brethren ; where the Greeks saw nations, we see 
mankind, toiling and suffering, severed by oceans, di- 
vided by language, separated by national enmity, yet 
evermore tending under a divine control toward the 
fulfilment of that inscrutable purpose for which the 
world was created." 

Outside of Christian nations this idea of human 
progress has never been made effective in the growth 



150 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



of Datioiis. Heathen civilizations, after a time, decay 
or become stationary. Says Prof. Main, " The sta- 
tionary condition of the human race is the rule; the 
progressive is the exception. It is most difficult for a 
citizen of western Europe to bring home thoroughly 
to himself the truth that the civilization which sur- 
rounds him is a rare exception in the history of the 
world." Christian nations are the only progressive 
nations, and the Christian expectation of progress, 
and the ideas growing out of it, are the controlling 
forces in the progressive civilizations of these nations. 

This statement is so important, namely, that all 
true national progress has been and must be in the 
acceptance of Christian ideas and principles, that we 
need to look at it a little more distinctly. Christian- 
ity must revolutionize society, must put it on an en- 
tirely different basis. In the history of the past, what 
has been the bond of union? What determines with 
whom I am to be friendly and to whom I must render 
service? It is the old question, "Who is my neigh- 
bor ? " And how have the nations responded ? Let 
the wise men of heathendom, the teachers of infidelity, 
answer in the light of their experience of the past, 
and they say, "The bond of human society is the tie 
of birth ; my neighbor is one of my own family, 
bound to me by blood. The range of fraternity and 
obligation is limited to kinship. The unit of society 
is the family, which may grow into the clan, embrac- 
ing many families, and the clan into a tribe embracing 
many clans, and the tribe into a nation embracing 
many tribes, but always united — at least in theory — 
as one race, the outgrowth of one family." 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



151 



This principle was the foundation-stone in all an- 
cient civilizations; it is the same in those of to-day 
that have not felt the life-giving blood of Christianity 
throbbing in their veins. Says Prof. Main, in his 
work on Ancient Law, to which I have before refer- 
red, Of this we may at least be certain, that all the 
ancient societies regarded themselves as having pro- 
ceeded from one original stock, and ever labored un- 
der an incapacity for comprehending any reason 
except this for holding together in political union. 
The history of political ideas begins, in fact, with the 
assumption that kinship in blood is the sole possible 
ground of community in political functions ; nor is 
there any subversion of feeling which we so emphat- 
ically term revolutions, so startling and so complete, 
as the change which is accomplished when some other 
principle establishes itself for the first time as the ba- 
sis of political action." 

The result of this would be an antagonism of races. 
Society would be organized on the principle of oppo- 
sition and hatred. Hence, if we examine the records 
of the past, we find that the race-hatred has been one 
of the most powerful forces in history, i^otwithstand- 
ing the wonderful changes in ideas and practice that 
have taken place from the introduction of Christian- 
ity, we still see manifestations of its terrible strength 
in the feeling between western Europe and the Turk, 
the Maygar, the Teuton, the Celt of Ireland against 
the English, and all our white races against the negro, 
the Indian, and the Chinese. 

The highest conception of a state ever attained by 



152 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



the most cultured of the ancients was a city — the 
home of one race — ruling all the people of a different 
race inhabiting different sections, and subjugated by 
it. The Romans dwelt at Eome. They could choose 
their rulers and make their laws; but all the people 
through the vast territories controlled by them could 
not enjoy the same rights, but must be subject to the 
ruling powers at Rome. Even when citizenship 
could be purchased for a consideration, it only meant 
adoption into this dominant race. It was the theory 
of our southern slave-holders that some men were 
born to rule, and that others were born to be ruled by 
them, and that to seek to bring about any change of 
condition would be fighting against God. 

Christianity came, combatting this ancient idea. 
With institutions, as such, it has nothing to do. Its 
purpose is to purify the thoughts, to change the life, 
and to allow this new life and pure thought to manifest 
themselves in improved institutions. It found the 
world organized under the dominion of force, the 
strong compelling the submission of the weak. It 
went to work to change the abnormal condition of 
things by putting before the world and into the hearts 
of rulers the idea of individulity. It sought to create 
a sacredness and respect for individual rights which 
no force could legally take away, which no state 
might disregard. It taught that man had rights as 
well as duties ; that the state was made for him, and 
not he for the state ; that it was obliged to conserve 
and defend his rights, and could give no better reason 
for its existence. 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 153 



The importance of the individual is the great basis- 
idea of Christianity. Even man must regard himself 
as of more v^orth than all created things. For 
what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul?" — that is, himself. Christ 
tasted death for every man ; and this is made availa- 
ble to every individual man by his own personal 
appropriation of it. The lowest man, the worst man 
in all God's universe, is still so precious that the blood 
of Christ could be shed and was shed for him. We 
are not saved by communities nor by nations. Each 
for himself must work out his own salvation. Society 
and government, with all the appliances which they 
bring with them, are only valuable as they help to 
advance in moral progress the individual man. 

This Christian idea is the one which is more and 
1 more taking possession of the nations of to-day. It 
' has been a tremendous power entering into the effete 
civilizations of the present, uprooting their foundations 
! and toppling their superstructures. The worth of 
man as man overthrew that barbarism which in its 
fall crushed the lamented Sumner, the sainted Lin- 
coln, and has sent a current of vitalizing blood 
through every vein of the dusky-faced men of the 
South. It is the power back of the throne urging on 
the great contest which our eyes have observed in 
the legislatures of our northern states during the last 
j'j few years. Man, made in the image of his Maker, 
I redeemed by the God-man, with capabilities that, if 
j not destroyed, will fit him for a glorious heritage 
li above, is of too noble an origin, is born to too great 

\ 



154 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



a destiny, to allow him to be battered and bruised 
and crusbed by the demon of strong drink. The 
worth of tbe individual is making war unpopular, 
and is adjusting the disputes of nations as becometh 
intelligent people. It is at the bottom of many of 
the strikes and contests of the land in which labor 
and capital are arrayed against each other. It is 
producing an unrest among the people of England, 
prompting them to ask for their rights in firmer tones 
than kings and queens have listened to heretofore. 
In Germany it is manifesting itself against the usur- 
pations of papal power, and, aided by royal strength, 
it nobly battles for the freedom which the truth shall 
give. It is seen in the persistent utterances of the 
women of the land, who, partially freed from the 
chains which an ignorant past has fastened upon 
them, demand that every band shall be broken and 
they left to enjoy that freedom of heart, of body, and 
of mind to which God has ordained them ; free to 
follow the instincts of their own natures so long as 
they do not interfere with the rights of others. It is 
borne in upon us by every breeze ; it is echoed from 
every mountain-top. Every school-house and college 
in the land is encouraging it. Kings and tyrants and 
despots are everywhere opposing it, but, like Banquo's 
ghost, it will not down, because God purposes it shall 
succeed. The contest, in whatever form it may ap- 
pear, shall go on until the kingdoms of earth shall 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ : 
until righteousness shall everywhere prevail, man 
acknowledge his brother man, and nations live in 
peace, harmony, and fellowship with each other. 



* 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 155 

In order that this theory of true manhood shall get 
hold of the weakest and most ignorant it is necessary 
that we have a jpersonal embodiment of its principles, 
that the hearts of all men may be drawn toward it. 
Such an example has been given us in the incarnated 
God, who walked and talked and lived among the 
hills of Judea. Turn over the records of that great- 
est of human lives, and in all the pages of history 
there is no one who has lived so regally as he. Born 
a king, for the sake of humanity he humbled himself 
that he might the better enter into the joys and sor- 
rows of men. Wherever he went he gave a new 
value to human life. He cheered the sorrowful, healed 
the broken-hearted, encouraged the desponding, and 
lifted up the bowed down. Full of tenderness toward 
those who needed it, he was fearful in denunciation 
against wicked and hypocritical Pharisees. Born a 
Jew, yet so wide in his sympathies, so divested of the 
national distinctions of his time, so cosmopolitan in 
his nature that he has become a citizen of the world. 
We claim him to-day with as much assurance and 
with as much right as did the Jew of eighteen centu- 
ries ago. With no selfish ambition to gratify, with 
no sinister plans in life, but controlled by one sole 
idea, the uplifting of humanity, he gave his life, his 
teaching, his energies, himself, to the great purpose. 
That life, pure and noble as it was, has stood the test 
of almost two thousand years. His enemies, bitter 
and unprincipled in their resources, have sought to 
find fault with it ; but there it stands, pure as when it 
was first given to the world, undimmed by time, 



156 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



■Qumarred by the assaults of , foes, but growing 
brighter and more vivid as time passes away. Xever 
before has that life had such hold upon men's hearts. 
There is no word which will so evoke the best im- 
pulses of man, nothing which will so call forth his 
warmest affections, nothing which will so arouse his 
slumbering energies as Jesus the Christ. For it men 
will bear the contempt and scorn of their fellows, the 
loss of property and honor, the torch and fagot, yea, 
will welcome death in its most terrible form. It is 
the rallying-cry of thousands of earth's choicest chil- 
dren. And this vast host shall increase until from pole 
to pole no other name shall be recognized as ruling 
among the children of men. 

If you have followed, this argument you will readily 
conclude with me that all individual and national 
progress is in the direction of Christianity. For man 
and for nations this is the only bow of promise in the 
heavens; therefore time and effort spent in seeking 
any other way are so much taken from man's true 
welfare, and the effort must result in total failure. 
The wise men of the land, who hope to make us 
model men by giving us a heavier dose of science, by 
developing our intellects, by satisfying our literary 
tastes, or by feeding our love of the beautiful, are 
making sad mistakes, but no worse mistake than men 
are making daily who hope, by wealth, position, or 
the cares of a profession, to satisfy the wants of an 
immortal nature and fit it for the other life. 

If the statements made are correct, the great work 
of the church is to build men ; it is not an insurance 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



157 



society, to save men from the perils of perdition, nor 
to furnish you a safe transit from this land of your 
earthly pilgrimage to the ^N'ew Jerusalem at reduced 
rates. It is to build you up in all those things that 
will make you like God ; to so restrain the evil and 
develop the good, under divine help and guidance, 
that you shall be fit for the inheritance of the saints 
in light. Thus fitted to be a pillar in the Master's 
kingdom, it matters not where heaven may be. If 
there be a just God you must be there; for you are 
prepared for such a condition and no other. 

Therefore whatever would hinder this manhood- 
building is wrong. 'No matter how pretentious it 
may be, no matter what beautiful guise it may assume, 
if it hinders your growth, if it lessens your manhood, 
if it vitiates your ideal or so weakens you that it can 
not be reached it is wrong and should be condemned. 
Every occupation, every association, every organiza- 
tion, every individual act which will have any such 
eflect ought to be instantly and persistently pushed 
aside. 

Since obedience to Christ is true religion, and this 
is equivalent to true manhood, and every man being 
under moral obligation to seek the latter, therefore to 
disobey Christ is death, — death to all true success ; to 
the great end of our being ; to the example we should 
place before others ; to the joys and pleasures of this 
life; to the happiness and bliss of the joyous future. 
It requires no infliction of an angry God to bring it 
upon us. Do you wish to be ignorant? It requires 
no desperate struggle. Put aside all sources of infor- 



158 CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



mation ; shut your eyes to the universe about you ; 
hold no communication with the treasured thouglits 
of the past ; turn your back upon all schools and col- 
leges, and you will readily accomplish the wish of 
your heart. A masterly inactivity will bring you all 
you wish. Fail to reach out after the life which 
Christ has promised to all who ask, fail to put your 
heart beside his great heart ever throbbing with love 
to man, and you die as certainly as the body dies if 
there be no food to satisfy its wants, — die of spiritual 
starvation, because you have failed to obtain that 
which alone can satisfy spiritual hunger. 

Christianity is- the law of human progress. Any 
lack of allegiance to this law is high treason against 
man. It is my business, it is every man's business, 
whether you meet the obligations that devolve upon 
you. By ties that we have not made and can not de- 
stroy we are inseparably linked to each other. Every 
man's life is, to some extent, interwoven with his 
neighbor's. You can not harbor a selfish thought 
that may not affect him. You can not do a wicked 
act that will not tend to wreck another. In addition 
to the influence we seek to exert upon others, we are 
unconsciously affecting their destiny, — not so much 
by what we do as by w^hat we are. We are to be 
lights in the great firmament that shall shine for the 
welfare of others. In opposing the law of God, 
therefore, one not only injures himself, but he raises 
his hand in hostility against his fellow. 

The traveler in the East seeks for the cities of olden 
time, the records of whose glory have come down to 



CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 159 

US from the distant past; but he finds them not. The 
people are gone; the wealth, the culture, and all that 
made them famous are missing. Enough broken col- 
umns, sculptured marble, and ruined walls remain to 
indicate to him the splendor and magnificence which 
at one time must have made them the pride and glory 
of the nations. As you go forth into the world to do 
your Master's work you will not find man as God 
made him, nor as God shall refashion him hereafter. 
You will find human beings in whom rage wild, un- 
governable passions, whose natures are in subjection 
to brutal appetites; beings whose faces show they 
have in good part lost the image impressed upon 
them at their creation, who have almost forgotten 
their destiny; and, like the individuals that constitute 
a mob, they are in hot pursuit of they know 'not 
what. You shall find in these broken fragments, 
shattered minds, and debased moral natures enough 
left to tell you of the glory that once existed. It 
shall be your work to teach these wrecks of humanity 
how the great Master-builder can take this debased 
material and make of it a thing of beauty which 
shall deck the gallery of heaven. To enforce your 
instructions so as to convince even the most skeptical 
you must put yourselves under the fashioning hand 
of the great Sculptor, who shall so fashion your lives 
that you shall stand forth to the world a living repre- 
sentative of what the gospel shall do to re-make man, 
and be able to say, in all humility, to a ruined world, 
as did Paul, " I would that thou wast not almost but 
altogether such as I am," save these chains. 



160 CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE MANHOOD. 



" In the elder days of art 

Builders wrought with greatest care 
Each minute and unseen part ; 
For the gods see everywhere. 

Let us do our work as well, 

Both the unseen and the seen ; 
Make the house where God may dwell 

Beautiful, entire, and clean. 

" Else our lives are incomplete, 

Standing in these walls of time, 
Broken stairways where the feet 
Stumble as^they seek to climb." 

— LongfeUow, 



EN are born unto responsibility. It is not a 



JLVX question whether they will assume it or not. 
They may choose their pursuit in life, but often in 
God's providence they are led into positions and have 
burdens put upon them which of themselves they 
would never have selected. Men often find occasion 
to bless God for thrusting them into places w^hither 
of their own accord they never would have gone, and 
demanding of them work which they never supposed 
they could perform. Moses would fain have rested 
in the retirement of the mountains, drinking in their 
lessons of wisdom ; but God saw fit to push him out 
into active life, and commissioned him to be the 
bearer of a divine message to Pharaoh. The work 
then commenced, and so grandly carried forward, 
made his name stand forth as the grandest of his age, 
if not indeed of all time. When Knox, of Scotland, 
was informed that his fellow-churchmen had selected 
him to be their preacher he was overcome with emo- 
tion, and wept, because, as he supposed, he was un- 
fitted for the great work. His words of wisdom and 
of reproof, his earnest prayers which shook old Scot- 
land to its foundation, justified the foresight of the 
people. Providence puts this responsibility upon us 




162 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



for our good and the good of the race. We may 
weaken our powers so as to unfit us for the accom- 
plishment of the work, but we are none the less held 
to the obligation. 

Indeed, a life without this responsibility would be 
of but little value. He who feels no "burden of the 
Lord" upon him for the accomplishment of any work 
gets no work done. We are often, without our 
choice, put into circumstances where we are compelled 
to do battle or retreat, to do with our might the work 
before us or submit to inglorious defeat. Such occa- 
sions both test and develop our strength. Men who 
have blessed their race and honored God have all 
passed through such scenes, and have remembered 
with joy the day when an overruling Providence put 
their feet into such a pathway. 

W^e have a beautiful illustration of the truth that 
increased responsibility is often thrust upon us with- 
out our consent, in one of those interesting gems of 
Old-Testament history, the book of Esther. 

Esther, a beautiful Jewish maiden, had been reared 
by her cousin Mordecai, both of whom were captives 
and now lived in the city of Shushan, near the palace 
of the king. Through the wise counsel of her elder 
cousin and the providence of God she comes to the 
throne of Persia. Yesterday a captive — to-day a 
queen. Thus does God pull down and build up in 
order to advance the interests of his kingdom. Some 
time after this remarkable occurrence in her history 
the king's prime minister became very much enraged 
at Mordecai because he did not pay him that respect 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



163 



which his position demanded. He determines to sig- 
nally punish such insolence in a captive, l^ot satis- 
fied to wreak his vengeance upon this single old man, 
he procures authority frohi the king to have all these 
hated Jews — men, women, and children — put to death. 
The outlook was terrible ; and wherever this decree 
went " there was mourning among the Jews, and fast- 
ing and weeping and wailing," and many went in 
sackcloth and ashes. Mordecai was greatly troubled, 
and sent word to Esther and charged her to go in be- 
fore the king ''to make supplication unto him, and 
to make a request before him for her people." 

There was a very foolish law among the Persians, 
and somewhat common to all eastern monarchs, by 
which access to the ruler at certain periods was made 
very difficult. In this case no one, not even the queen 
herself, might come into his presence unbidden. If 
any came and he did not extend to them his scepter 
in token of forgiveness, they should immediately be 
put to death. When Mordecai besought Esther to 
I • approach the king she urged this law, and added that 
I she, most likely, had already merited his displeasure, 
I for he had not invited her into his presence for thirty 
I days. But Mordecai forewarned her that not only 
■ were the other Jews in danger, but that she, although 
j in the king's house, should not escape, whereas 
in saving herself she held in her hands the des- 
tinies of all her people, and then added the ever- 
memorable words, " Who knowest whether thou art 
come to the kingdom for such a time as this ? " 

Thus did this woman find herself beset with a 



164 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



heavy responsibility, l^o doubt in outshining all the 
daughters of the land, and thus winning her way to 
the throne, she delighted the heart of Mordecai, who 
was pleased that such honors should be conferred 
upon one of his own race and family. Perhaps in 
her own heart she rejoiced at this promotion. But 
scarcely had she received the desire of her heart 
when , she found herself in a very trying position. 
From no desire or wish upon her part the well-being 
of her whole race seemed to hang upon her conduct. 
There appeared to be no other one who could take 
her place. To recede was to consign her race to 
slaughter to gratify the pride of one wicked man ; 
her own life might be sacrificed with that of her race. 
To go forward promised but one ray of hope. Like 
a brave-hearted woman she took the risk and went 
forward, saying, " If I perish, I perish." There are 
responsibilities thrust upon us which we do not seek, 
and we are put to bearing burdens through no eflort 
of our own. I am thus led to consider the respon- 
sibility of Christian scholars. 

This responsibility may come, in part, from having 
in charge important interests. The passenger on board 
the vessel owes a duty to his fellow-passengers which 
must be met, but he carries no such weight of respon- 
sibility as the man at the wheel or the officer in com- 
mand. To them is committed the welfare of the 
vessel and all on board. The private in the ranks has 
no such duty to perform as he who plans the cam- 
paign and controls the forces. If he wins the battle 
he gets the praise ; if he fail he must take the blame. 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



165 



The private citizen must vote intelligently and hon- 
estly for the good of the nation. But the man in the 
executive chair who controls the patronage, who rep- 
i resents the nation, who executes the laws, who honors 
and dignifies the government or who dishonors and 
1 disgraces it, who is supposed to be the embodiment 
of the culture, freedom, and purity of a whole people, 
I is held to a law more rigid than any which binds the 
I private citizen. General Grant the humble farmer in 
' his own prairie home and General Grant in the exec- 
utive chair of the nation are measured by entirely 
difierent rules. Things which he might do in his pri- 
vate capacity without calling for anything more than 
the pity of men, in his higher capacity as executive 
would be outrageous and worthy of the highest con- 
j demnation. The Bible has but one code of morality 
for pulpit and peW; and yet the minister, because of 
the interests committed to his hands, is held to a more 
!i rigid account than the layman. The bank president 
1 in the north-west, who lost his life in defense of the 
! property of others over which he was guardian, 
rather than desert his post, realized his true relation 
to his fellow-men. He could have saved his life by 
opening his safe. Had the property been his own, 
possibly it might have been right to have done thus. 
As it was put into his hands for safe keeping, he 
'I manfully resolved to offer his life rather than betray 
I his trust; and the whole nation has commended his 
' decision. The deed done has blessed us all. We are 
all grander to-day, have more confidence in ourselves 
|j and in the worth of humanity, because of his brave 



166 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



act. So felt Dr. Martin Luther when he stood before 
the crowned heads at Worms and in the greatness of 
his soul cried out, " I can not do otherwise. Grod 
help me. Amen." So felt William Llojd Garrison 
when, carrying in his heart the great sorrows of the 
slave and the remembrance of the cruel wrongs in- 
flicted upon him, he said in his first printed sheet, " I 
will be heard. Posterity shall do me justice." Per- 
haps no one has been more conscious of the weight 
of this responsibility than the persons themselves. It 
has seemed to them at times as a direct call from God 
to go forward ; and men have considered this impulse 
which drove them to action almost a decree of fate. 

This responsibility is due in part to the ability pos- 
sessed. It is the teaching of the Bible that to whom 
much is given of them shall much be required. All 
are accountable. But the man of ten talents is more 
responsible than the man of one talent. He has a 
greater power for good or evil. He has more means 
in his hands to effect results, — more capital at his 
command. Hence his income should be greater. Be- 
cause Webster has more native and acquired ability 
than an American Indian, he must account to his 
fellow-man and to his God for the right use of this 
ability. Therefore the man who does not mean to 
take upon himself the obligations of life should avoid 
the increase of any of his. powers ; for in proportion 
as they are strong will be the burden laid upon him. 
Because a Vanderbilt has the business tact to make 
and manage money he is to render a more rigid ac- 
count of his stewardship than the man with no such 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



167 



ability. In short, if we are to be held for what we 
may or can do, then must we be responsible for our 
capacities, whether physical, mental, or moral; for 
these are the things by means of which we accom- 
plish the purposes of life. 

The measure of this responsibility is also propor- 
tioned to the opportunity possessed. Much of the work 
of this life is drudgery ; and this the masses must do. 
Few of us are born great, and perhaps fewer still 
have greatness thrust upon them. There are times 
in God's providence when we are thrust into respon- 
sible positions — when rare opportunities to do a grand 
work present themselves. Through no management 
of his own, but through causes which he could not 
control, there came a time when Abraham Lincoln 
could restore to four millions of slaves the blessed 
boon of freedom. While perhaps he was not respon- 
sible for the influences which brought him there, 
I when once there he was responsible for the right use 
I of the opportunity. Daniel in Babylon was not a 
member of the king's household by his own wish or 
arrangement ; but when once there, with the field be- 
I fore him, it was his duty in every proper way to 
honor his God and the religion of his native land. 
When Jeroboam was called to rule over the divided 
kingdom, he had in his hands the opportunity to 
make of Israel a great nation which should both 
honor God and perpetuate his own name in blessed 
remembrance. He allowed the occasion to slip from 
his grasp, and he comes down through history with 
his name all covered over with dishonor, and whose 



j 



168 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



epitaph has been written by the pen of inspiration^ 
" Jeroboam the son of ITebat, who caused Israel to 
sin." Pilate once found himself face to face with an 
accused criminal. He went through the forms of an 
examination and found nothing against him. He 
had been falsely accused by enemies who sought his 
destruction. When he had investigated the case he 
reported, " I find no fault in this man." Under such 
circumstances he should have used every power at his 
command to have protected this innocent man. If 
the mob still persisted, all the Roman soldiery in the 
city should have been called out, — ay, the city itself 
should have been laid in the dust. No price is too 
much to pay for the protection of innocence and the 
punishment of crime. But in the hour of rare op- 
portunity, when the destiny of the nation hung in 
the balance, when his own honor was at stake, when 
all heaven was gazing intently upon his conduct, the 
man's lower nature asserted itself, the baser part tri- 
umphed, the opportunity for a rare good deed van- 
ished, and mankind, until the end of time, will think 
of Pontius Pilate with contempt. 

ITothing so tries the strength and manifests the 
weakness of men as these rare opportunities which 
are presented to them. The ship may have no diffi- 
culty as long as the sea is smooth, the atmosphere 
unmoved, and the sky serene. But when the ocean 
is all upheaved, when the sky is black, when the 
winds blow and the lightnings flash, when the vessel 
creaks and groans in the hands of the elements, then 
it is that a single improper joint, the lack of a single 



CHRISTIAX SCHOLARS. 



169 



nail, the presence of one plank of unsound material, 
may plunge the passengers into the foaming billows. 
The storm will test its strength. It should have been 
built for this, and not for the calm. The wrecks of 
humanity found all along the shores of time bear wit- 
ness to this improper building of human character. 
With pleasant surroundings, with no trying circum- 
stances to test their strength, men for a time pass cur- 
rent as strong men ; but when the storms of tempta- 
tion come upon them, when the winds of adversity 
begin to blow, woe be to him who has not built him- 
self so as to meet the storms of life I The vessel 
which can not breast the adverse winds that are sure 
to come must never put to sea. It may make many 
voyages in safety, but when the trying hour comes, 
as come it will, its passengers go to the bottom. So 
man is prepared for the duties of life who does not 
strengthen himself for this critical moment. The 
fitness for the moment is produced by the actions of 
the past. At this hour we shall be just as strong as 
our weakest point. Men who make shipwreck when 
this great trial comes do so not because any event has 
happened to them different from that which comes to 
others. Their natures have proved to be rotten, and 
their manhood has succumbed. 

All of the elements of responsibility which I have 
named meet in the case of the Christian scholar. His 
culture has given him a knowledge of his own pow- 
ers and how to use them. He has been trained to 
think correctly and to give his thought forcible utter- 
ance. He collects facts and arranges them in scien- 
12 



170 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



tific order. He follows causes to their results, and 
from effects can divine causes. With his foresight he 
sees into what to other men would seem to be the 
misty future ; and to him more than to all others do 
" coming events cast their shadows before." All the 
treasured knowledge of the past and the wisdom of 
the future are at his feet. The heavens above and 
the earth beneath yield to him their store-houses of 
facts. His eyes are multiplied, by means of which 
he can see a thousand things of which the uncultured 
man never dreams. He hears melodies that never fall 
on unskilled ears. He holds in his hand the key 
which unlocks the universe of thought. The highest 
and best interests of man are in his possession. In 
the family, the church, the state, he knows what is 
best to be done, and has the skill to do it. He fore- 
sees the end from the beginning, and knows the 
means best adapted to secure the end. 'No one stands 
on such an eminence of usefulness, and therefore no 
one carries such a burden of responsibilit}^ as he. 
Whatever excuse others may plead for failure to do 
the work allotted him, he has none. Is ability needed ? 
He has unmeasured resources. His arms reach out 
in all directions to bring to his aid the forces of brute- 
nature. Happy is he who appreciates his position; 
who sees the forces at his command and properly 
uses them for the good of humanity; who not only 
joyfully enters upon the career which his high endow- 
ments open up before him, but manfully assumes the 
responsibilities which it necessarily carries with it. 
Such a life above all others shall merit the commen- 
dation of Well done, good and faithful servant." 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



171 



Presuming that you are anxious and willing to meet 
this responsibility and act well your part, may I specify 
more definitel}^ some of the things which we may ex- 
pect you to do? You have dlfierent tastes; your tal- 
ents are unlike. Your culture, therefore, will be as dif- 
ferent as 3'our tastes and talents. You can not do 
equally well the same work. In the vast workshop 
of lite you must find something which needs to be 
done, and which you can best of all do. What are 
those fields of thought and activity into which you 
shall enter? The subject can not be exhausted. Time 
will allow us to specify but few. 

I name first, Politics^ or the Science of Government. 
Not that it is the most important, but because by force 
of circumstances it has been very prominently before 
our minds the last few months. It is commonly con- 
ceded that we have an excellent theory of govern- 
ment ; but a little study and observation will reveal 
to any man that we have a wretched practice. We 
permit things to be done and we do things which 
would disgrace uncivilized Turkey, and yet fold our 
hands, repeat our prayers, and thank the Lord that 
we are not as other men are. " In that elder day, to 
be a Roman was greater than to be a king." In this 
modern day, to be known as an American is almost 
the least honor that could happen to one in a foreign 
land. 

Every Christian scholar, every man, indeed, should 
know that civil government is as much an ordinance 
of God as is the church. While they are different in 
their spheres, they are both divinely ordained, and 



172 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



therefore both very important. Each has its own 
sphere of action, but both are designed for the good 
of man. It is therefore as much a Christian's duty 
to support civil government as to support the church. 
Government, because an ordinance of God, is to be 
maintained and determined not by politicians with 
selfish aims, but by Christian citizens. From our very 
organization we can not meet the great ends of life, 
and most successfully accomplish our mission without 
it. It is therefore a means to an end. When it 
ceases to seek that end it ceases to be legitimate gov- 
ernment, and becomes usurpation. It should aim to 
redress the wrongs and secure the rights of all, irre- 
spective of age, sex, or condition in life. A govern- 
ment which tramples under foot its humblest citizen, 
be he red man or black man, young or old, deserves 
the condemnation of all good citizens and the venge- 
ance of Almighty God. 

Under our form of government the ballot is sup- 
posed to indicate an intelliofent choice, freely made, 
and made in view of all the interests impending. To 
exercise this right of choice, and to do it in the way 
specified, is a duty and not a privilege. Says Dr. 
Fairchild, of Oberlin, " The exercise of the right of 
suftrage is a governmental function. It directs and 
controls the administration of the government, and 
hence should be contemplated as a responsibility, and 
not as a personal privilege to be used or neglected at 
will. Those to whom the right is extended have a 
duty to perform, and carelessness or dishonesty is a 
breach of trust. If the intelligent and virtuous neg- 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS, 



173 



lect this duty, they surrender the government to the 
ignorant and the vicious." 

We may go further than this. Dr. Hopkins, in his 
moral philosophy, truthfully asserts, as we believe, 
"that it follows from the representative character of 
voting, that the exercise of the right becomes a duty, 
and that citizens can not treat it, as they frequently 
would, as a personal right or privilege which they 
may rightfully at their pleasure forego ; but it im- 
poses a solemn obligation, requiring in the voter the 
exercise of his intelligence and discretion, if not for 
himself at least for the sake of others who can not 
take part in the government, and even for the sake of 
posterity who will one day inherit his work and be af- 
fected by his care or his neglect. So essential is this 
that society might compel the exercise of this right, 
and insist that those to whom it is committed shall 
not lay it lightly aside, nor be allowed to shield them- 
selves under the idea that it is a personal right and 
privilege, and thus stand idly by while others inflict 
I an injury upon society, but might require of them, 
I as of more formal guardians and trustees, that they 
shall act for the benefit of members of society to pro- 
: tect them." 

1 Of the thousands of voters in this commonwealth 
! and this nation, how many have any such exalted 
idea of the ballot and the obligation resting upon 
1: them to use it properly ? Visit the polls on election-day, 
I even in our rural towns, and observe the recklessness 
j with which men vote. They sell their ballots for less 
I than a mess of pottage. A drink of rum, a few cigars, 



174 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



a clay's wages — almost anything will obtain it. In- 
deed, in many of our larger cities a man of much re- 
spectability can not be elected to office. The man 
who wishes to be mayor of our cities must leave a 
little money at each of the saloons, and his votes are 
sure. Men are bought and sold like beeves in the 
market, and it causes no blush of shame to tingle 
their cheeks. The man who is so ignorant that he 
can not read his printed ballot nor write his own 
name, walks up to the polls, has a ballot put into his 
hand by the party managers, and votes his senti- 
ments (!). It matters not whether the candidate be a 
drunkard, a liquor-seller, an infidel, a libertine, he be- 
longs to our party, and if the managers have put him 
forward we must indorse him. If this buying and 
selling of votes belonged to the debased part of so- 
ciety we might feel the degradation less ; but when 
intelligent Christian men, ignoring the highest inter- 
ests of hmanity, can so tie themselves to parties that 
the}^ can turn over the keeping of their consciences 
and their honor into the hands of these managers, it 
is high time that some stream of good influences be 
turned into these Augean stables to cleanse them of 
their filth. 

Closely connected with this is the dishonesty mani- 
fested at our elections — the crime against the ballot-box. 
We are rapidly drifting away from that old Furitan 
notion which would rather be right than be president. 
In our large cities, illegal voting has come to be the 
rule. In closely-contested elections, almost every re- 
sult is carried by fraud. The legal voters of lN"ew 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



175 



York City can not have the man to rale over them 
whom the majority wish, but must take the man 
whom the mob desire. It is a question whether the 
people of 'New York state for years have had a gov- 
ernor of their own choice. Votes have been bought, 
ballot-boxes stuffed, illegal voters, as in Cincinnati, 
have been led from ward to ward and bribed to vote 
for certain parties, votes have been destroyed, improp- 
er returns made under oath, and every possible de- 
vice that could be used and that was likely to escape 
detection has been used to accomplish the end de- 
signed. Whatever means have been proposed to 
prevent such frauds have been fought step by step, 
because some time they might interfere with some 
selfish purpose. Elections have been scrambles for 
places where we might rob the public and profit our 
party. We have just passed through such a presi- 
dential campaign as our country has never before 
seen. It is a source of encouragement that this 
period of passion, prejudice, and plunder has passed 
by with as little loss of life, although no doubt hun- 
dreds have paid the penalty of desiring to vote freely 
at the cost of their lives. For months three states 
were so nearly divided that nothing but an official 
count could determine who was elected; and this has 
not done it. Two sets of committees were sent, if I 
mistake not, to each of these states. One party came 
back w^ith documentary evidence, signed by men of 
good ability, of national reputation, men trained to 
discriminate between assertions and proofs, to the ef- 
j feet that the Democratic party had been guilty of 



176 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OP 



gross frauds at the elections in each of these states; 
and there is not a shadow of doubt but that the 
charge is a correct one. The other committee, com- 
posed of men of equal ability, reported, on good au- 
thority, that the Republican party had resorted to 
fraud in order to put their own men into power; and 
there is no doubt but that the report is correct. Each 
party is for reforming the other. Each party is anx- 
ious that means may be used which will prevent fraud 
in the other and uncover every mean thing it does, 
but at the same time is anxious to conceal its own 
faults; and thus our standard of morality is trailed 
in the dust. Politics is no longer the science of 
statesmanship — it is a scramble for office. Our man, 
our party, our success, — honestly if we can, but if not, 
put your money where it will do the most good, and 
secure the electoral vote at any cost. 

In the language of Dr. Leonard Bacon, of New 
Haven, " To forge a check, a deed, or a will, is not a 
greater crime, nor should it be more severely punished, 
than to vitiate an election by fraudulent ballots or by 
fraudulent counting. The robber who with pistol or 
bludgeon coerces a traveler into the surrender of his 
purse is really not a greater villain than the man who 
has any part in an attempt to control an election by 
violence at the ballot-box or by intimidation before- 
hand. 

" It is the frequency and impunity of this crime 
and the extent to which it is notoriously efficient at 
our great elections that has brought the nation into 
the peril of the present hour. The people of all the 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLAKS. 



177 



United States are losing their confidence in the bal- 
lot-box, for they are finding that it does not express 
their will. They are coming to the knowledge of the 
fact that instead of governing themselves, they are 
in the hands of men who live by politics, whose high- 
est aim is to carry the next election, and who are un- 
scrupulous as to the means by which it may be car- 
ried." 

Look at the men ive elect to office. What are the 
qualifications required ? Thomas Jefi:erson was ac- 
customed to ask, "Is he honest? Is he capable?" 
At the close of his administration he left upon record 
the statement that if his work was to be done again 
he would add to those qualifications a third, " Is he 
temperate?" If we should insist on such qualifica- 
tions, how it would spoil all the ofiice-seekers in the 
state. We have passed beyond all such Puritan no- 
tions, and we now ask, " Is he of our party ? Can he 
be elected ? Can he control the appointments ? And 
most of all, can he control the German vote ?" 

This bar-room statesmanship — for I know of no 
other name with which to christen it — is not confined 
to one of the great political parties of the nation. The 
trace of the serpent is over them all. The very atmos- 
phere seems full of it. Of course, bad men would not 
be put in nomination if the dear people of the land did 
not vote for them. The fact that they will endure 
such men and to some extent rejoice in them shows a 
very week judgment or bad condition of morals. This is 
not confined to our own commonwealth ; others furnish 
illustrations of this political degeneracy. The gentle- 



178 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



man whom of all others in this we are most expected 
to honor is a boon companion of German infidels and 
saloon politicians ; and yet he received a larger vote 
than any of his more honorable associates, which was 
paying a fine tribute to the intelligence and morality 
of the good people of Ohio. The aged veteran who 
preceded him in his oflice was accustomed in his 
campaign tours to carry a basket of refreshments and 
have an attendant with him whose chief work was 
to steady the palsied hands as they essayed to carry 
the well-filled glass to his lips. And yet the good 
people of this state made him their ruler. If I should 
come still nearer home I might say further that not- 
withstanding the piety and culture of the people of 
Columbus, the man who is certain to be their mayor 
must be a Dutchman, must drink beer himself and be 
under the control of the whisky ring, otherwise he 
can not hold ofiice. If I must go further, I could say 
that a drunken man who is sometimes picked up from 
the streets of Columbus, who is a frequenter of the 
worst drinking holes there, who visited these places 
before the election and deposited money for the pur- 
chase of votes, was chosen by the people of this county 
to administer the law, to promote justice, to punish 
law-breakers, to preserve the purity, order, and moral' 
ity of the community; and strange to say, one hundred 
and eighty or more citizens over twenty- one years of 
age were found in this township of Blendon to vote 
for such a man. And most remarkable of all, a num- 
ber of these lived in this village and its vicinity, in 
sight of a Christian college, in the presence of Chris- 



CHKISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



179 



tian churches, and perhaps some of them may even 
have their names upon the church-record. Yea, worse 
than all this, these men have Bibles in their homes 
and profess to obey them. "Tell it not in Gath, pub- 
lish it not in the streets of Askelon," lest the wicked 
heathen rejoice 'and make light of our Christian civil- 
ization. 

The grand old mountains of the Keystone State 
should produce a race of freemen. Yet even here the 
people have succumbed to this poisonous political 
measure. It is commonly understood and publicl}^ 
asserted that the present governor of the state secured 
his re-election and large majority because he signed 
the bill to repeal the local-option law of the state, 
which law was playing sad havoc with the whisky 
ring, and which in violation of plighted taith and in 
opposition to all justice and good order was ruthlessly 
broken. A president of a railroad in eastern Penn- 
sylvania, a member of the bar of high repute, in pros- 
ecutions of the nefarious " Molly Maguires,'' said 
publicly that this whole band of ignorant assassins 
had agreed to vote for a certain official, in con- 
sideration of which he would specially favor them in 
case of need. The entire State of Pennsylvania, so far 
as one party is concerned, is in the hands of one man. 
When he nods, the state nods; when he sneezes, the 
state sneezes; when he commands, the state starts; 
when he cries halt, everything checks up. Meantime, 
he concluded it would be a good thing to be a senator. 
His party was three in the minority in the legislature; 
but a little shining gold soon secured the requisite 



180 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



number of votes. Since that time he has ruled the 
state. Wishing to perpetuate his name in the Senate, 
he notifies the legislature that he desires his son to 
succeed him. Immediately they spring like puppets 
to their places, and only one man of all that body 
dares disobey the voice of the master. He is elected 
with little to recommend him save large wealth and 
the fact that he belongs to the tribe of Cameron. 

An editor of a prominent paper of his own party, in 
his own state, makes this cheery statement of his 
election : 

''We have no fears as to the course of Mr. Cameron 
in the United States Senate. He goes there for no 
desire of forensic battle, from no wish to enter the 
lists as the champion of any wise measure or sound 
policy. He goes because he sees in that career the 
only possible means by which he may retain control 
of those avenues of power which he has made lead to 
the direction of worship to himself. He loves power 
not because of any good he may accomplish for his 
country — that is so broad a view that his vision can 
not encompass it — but because it has made men do 
homage to him. And he goes to the Senate knowing 
that in but one way can the sinister influence he has 
held in Pennsylvania politics be maintained. For 
years the ruler of a dynasty where purity of purpose 
was scoffed at, where integrity and merit brought na 
recommendations for advancement, he will seek to 
disguise his past, and veil his future intent by such 
semblance of virtue as will enable him to appeal con- 
fidently to the President for a deciding voice in the 
control of the federal patronage in Pennsylvania." 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



181 



We greatly need at this time a broader statesman- 
ship which shall estimate the patriot as above the 
partisan; which shall both teach and practice the 
maxim that he serves his party best who serves his 
eountry most ; which shall be governed by the infal- 
lible principles of right rather than the shifting policy 
of expediency ; which w^ill seek the good of the whole 
nation and not the undue advancement of any partic- 
ular section ; which shall consider all official position 
a sacred trust to be administered for the people's good 
and not for the aggrandisement of self; which will 
call a man a thief whether he steals from his neighbor 
or from the treasury of the nation ; which will use the 
ballot for the protection of the defenseless, the conser- 
vation of morals and the general good of all and not 
profanely barter it for a mess of pottage ; which shall 
esteem the production and development of pure- 
minded men and not the enlargement of her physical 
resources, the true grandeur of a nation ; that will 
denounce bribery, corruption, illegal voting, and other 
political crimes as severely when committed by one 
party as by another; that will recognize God and not 
the devil as the ruler among the nations of the earth; 
which shall not follow the example of infidel France, 
when drunk with the blood of the slain, and deify 
crime, placing its drunken men into presidential chairs, 
its blatant infidels and liquor-dealers into cabinet seats, 
nor yet sending its fashionable gamblers to the court 
of St. James, but which shall believe and teach that 
antiquated idea which has come down to us from a 
former age, that " righteousness exalteth a nation but 



182 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



sin is a reproach to any people." We want more of 
the old type of legislators whom the Quaker poet has 
immortalized in verse • ^ 



" Meanwhile in the old state-house, dim as ghosts 
Sat the lawgivers of Connecticut 
Trembling beneath their legislative robes. 
"It is the Lord's great day, let us adjourn," 
Some said; and then as if with one accord 
All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport. 
He rose, storm cleaving with his steady voice 
The intolerable hush, "This well may be 
The day of judgment which the world awaits ; 
But be it so or not, I only know 
My present duty, and my Lord's command 
To occupy till he come. So at the post 
Where he hath set me in his providence 
I choose for one to meet him face to face. 
No faithless servant frightened from my task. 
But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls; 
And therefore with all reverence I would say 
Let God do his work and we do ours. 
Bring in the candles!" And they brought them in. 
And there he stands in memory this day. 
Erect, self-poised, a rugged face, half seen 
Against the background of unnatural dark, 
A witness to the ages as they pass 
That simple duty has no place for fear." 

It should be a part of your mission as Christian 
scholars, by example and by ballot, on the platform, 
in the pulpit, with the pen, wherever you may be 
called to labor, to usher in this glorious era in our 
political economy, and then we shall no longer, when 
traveling in foreign lands, hang our heads in shame 
on account of our nationality, but as Paul gloried in 
his Roman citizenship, so may the heritage to which 
we are born be made glorious and more honored than 
that of any human being under the sun. 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



183 



In the educational work of the day our Christian 
scholars must play a very important part. For this 
the}" are especially fitted. It is one of the most direct 
means whereby they shall bring about the higher 
political life, of which I have just spoken. Whether 
you will or not, you must be educators. Your daily 
walk, your tones of voice, your habits of life, the words 
you utter, the thoughts you pen, all these will influ- 
ence men to make them better or worse. In addition 
to this you are expected to put forth direct efl'ort to 
fashion, change or develop the educational systems 
and appliances of the clay to such an extent as you 
may be able, so that they shall produce the best 
possible results. We boast, and perhaps justly, of our 
educational facilities ; but it were foolish to suppose 
that we had reached perfection. This is not true of 
either our public schools or our colleges. Says a 
college-professor, " Better lawyers, better physicians, 
better clergymen, better editors, better legislators, 
better men, these are the need of the republic; and it 
is only by producing these that we can make it certain 
that the republic will be better directed." 

The people of this nation, irrespective of political 
affiliations, are interested in their public schools. 
Said an intelligent foreigner upon his return to his 
own country, "Those who know America best and 
longest will agree that whether the attachment of 
Americans for free sclioois is founded on good and 
solid reasons or otherwise, there can not be the slight- 
est doubt that it exists, and that it forms one of the 
most striking features in our national character." And 



184 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



» 



yet it is questioned by some whether these schools 
are doing the work designed, and if not how they may 
be brought to a higher state of perfection. We have 
grand machinery ; we are rich in our appliances ; we 
are free of new methods ; but are we teaching the 
youth? Says Dr. Peabody, of Cambridge, who should 
be a competent judge, "There is reason to believe that 
more and better work was done b}^ our schools in the 
early days of the republic than is accomplished now." 

Some curious statistics as to the failure of our com- 
mon-school system may be gathered from the officia^^ 
reports of West Point Academy. Says Professor 
Church, " I am satisfied there is somewhere a serious 
defect in the system of instruction, or in its application 
in the schools of our country, for education in the 
elementary branches, particularly in arithmetic, read- 
ing, and spelling. I think our candidates are not as 
thoroughly prepared as they were twenty years ago. 
In the last five years the average number of rejected 
candidates has been six per cent for physical deficiency 
and forty per cent for deficiency in scholastic attain- 
ments. In the ITew England states where educational 
facilities are open to all, the rejections have been thirty- 
five per cent of the number examined from that sec- 
tion. From these statistics it is clearly evident that 
in the schools of the country there is need of more 
thorough methods of instruction in the elementary 
branches." Whether we are to have a new system or 
a more vigorous life infused into the old, the scholars 
now coming upon the stage must determine. 

Who shall teach our schools and how they shall he 



f 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 185 

"prepared for their work is to some extent an unsolved 
problem. Mrs. Livermore would probably put a large 
part of lier superfluous women into the teaching pro- 
fession ; and it might be best for them and the nation 
were she to do so. Bishop Frazer, of England, says 
of our American women, " They certainly have the 
gift of turning what they do know to the best account ; 
they are self-possessed, energetic, and fearless; they are 
admirable disciplinarians, firm without severity, pa- 
tient without weakness; their manner of teaching is 
lively and fertile in illustrations; classes are not likely 
to fall asleep in their hands." Mr. H. G-. I^ortbrup, 
secretary of the Connecticut Board of Education, says, 
^^i^'ature has marked her out for the work of element- 
ary instruction. Outside of the family she nowhere 
seems as truly to occupy her appointed sphere. The 
work is adapted to her mental and moral constitution." 
As an ofiset to these and other complimentary notices 
which I might quote. President Elliot, of Harvard, 
says, " The employment of women in the schools in 
the enormous proportion in which they are now 
employed in many towns and cities is an unwise 
economy, because it invariably tends to make the 
body of teachers a changing, fluctuating body, fast 
thinned and fast recruited, and, secondly, to make 
teaching not a life-work as it ought to be, but a tem- 
porary resort on the way to another mode of life." 

There are several instrumentalities at work seekino: 
to destroy, or at least, weaken the efficiency of the 
public school. The rich man with means at his com- 
mand has no desire to pay money for the education of 
13 



186 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



the children of his neighbors. He does not wish his 
children to associate with the crowd in the streets, 
nor does he desire they shall occupy the same level 
at school. 

Our Catholic brethren believe that the child belongs 
to the parent, the church, rather than the state. To 
do well its work it needs to be morally and religiously 
trained. As the state can not do this without going 
beyond its legal power, it must be done by the church 
or not be done at all. Because these schools do not 
fit the child either for this life or the life to come, they 
should not be required to support them. They desire 
to appropriate the money which they are asked to 
pay toward the public school, in such a manner as 
^will secure the proper instruction of their children. 

The infidel class are opposed to them because they 
have too much religion in them: the Catholic because 
they are too godless. Liberalists insist that the 
use of the Bible in the public schools, whether osten- 
sibly as a text-book or actually as a book of religious 
worship, shall be prohibited." They are not so much 
opposed to the schools as to their moral teaching. 
They desire to secularize them ; and to this we 
believe the people of a Christian nation will not soon 
submit. There is a half-truth and much plausibility 
in the demand of the Catholic. The demand of the 
secularist is not in harmony with the origin, practice, 
and history of our government. 

The same danger is upon us with regard to our 
higher education. Our colleges, as well as our public 
schools, owe their origin to our common Christianity. 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



187 



They were originally intended to prepare for the 
people a cultivated clergy. Shall this higher educa- 
tion be furnished by Christian colleges, under the 
supervision of Christian men, or shall it be in the 
hands of men who are selected for this purpose by 
designing politicians who have no adequate conception 
of the work to be done? Says President White, of 
Cornel], an ardent advocate of state control, " The 
main provision for advanced education in the United 
States must be made by the people at large, acting 
through their national and state legislatures, to endow 
and maintain institutions for higher instructions, fully 
equipped and free from sectarian control. I urge 
further that our existing public-school system leads 
us logically and necessarily to the endowment of 
advanced instruction." On the other side, says an 
Ohio instructor, " Higher education can not be sepa- 
rated from religion. Atheists will not pay taxes to 
support theistic institutions, nor tbeistic, atheistic." 
To put higher instruction into the hands of the gov- 
ernment is not only impolitic, but wrong in principle. 
The government should hold the same relation to 
higher education that it does to religion. Further 
religion is essential to higher culture, and the state 
can not teach religion. Christianity is the natural 
ally of culture. Finally, intellectual culture without 
religion can not build character. The great need of 
the nation is moral force. 

I am not sure but the nation made a fearful blunder 
in putting the ballot into the hands of so many ignorant 
men in the South. Revolutions, however, never go 



188 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



backward, and these parties can not be safely deprived 
of it now. The only safety left us is to lift them to a 
higher plane of citizenship, whereby they may know 
the duties and obligations growing out of the position 
and be able to meet them. They can not remain in 
this ignorance and the country prosper. We can not 
afford to run the risk of the presence of the large 
number of immoral, untaught citizens found in our 
northern cities. How to prepare them for citizenship 
is a question which, along with others I have men- 
tioned, is to be settled in this age, and which yon are 
to help determine. It will tax the energy and intelli- 
gence of all of us to bring about a successful result. 
Here is a field which, will afford occupation for both 
brain and hand of the best of you. May you do well 
your part in the proper solution of these problems. 

In bringing to bear upon mankind the appliances 
of the gospel so as to secure their well-being here and 
hereafter you will find ample opportunity for the 
broadest culture you can hope to possess. And let me 
frankly say that there is no work which will afford 
you richer enjoyment. There is no department of 
activity which will so beautifally and harmoniously 
develop your whole natures and bring you such 
abundant rewards. The field is broad, and whosoever 
will may enter in. And yet there is a portion of this 
broad area which you with the favorable opportunities 
for culture that you have possessed, could occupy 
better than any other. 

It is a peculiarity of our holy Christianity, and one 
which is a striking proof of its divine origin, that it is 



! 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 189 

adapted to all circnmstances in life ; capable of meet- 
ing the wants of the most untutored savage and the 
finest scholar; adapted not only to the early and 
uncultured age of the world, but to the periods of the 
grandest achievements in science and literature. 

We are to have no new gospel, — we need none, — but 
we may have and should have a modified interpreta- 
tion of the old. The gospel has many sides. It 
addresses the reason, the affections, and the plans of 
men. The gospel in its various combinations and 
adaptations must suit itself to the wants of the present. 
It must strengthen the feeble, lift up the weak, 
and vitalize every movement of society. A religion 
which will suit any one age of the world must be left 
behind in the next. We must change the forms of 
speech in which these living truths are embodied, but 
the same vital elements are to be preserved. We 
must adapt Christianity to the age in which we live. 
If thrown out of the electric circle, its loses its influence 
in the promotion of human progress. Every heathen 
nation is a living example. The learned Hindoo can 
not believe in a false religion which he knows rests 
upon a lie, and therefore denies all. The honest 
Catholic of Europe when brought face to face with 
the superstitious observances of his own faith does 
not readily reach Christianity until he passes through 
the slough of German infidelity. 

It might seem desirable to sit down in peace and 
quiet, but the great Head of the church has ordered it 
otherwise. There seems constantly before us some 
new manifestation of Bible-truth, some new applica- 



190 



THE RESPOXSIBrLITT OF 



tioii of Bible-doctrine, ^Ve must either push our 
couquests in some new direction, or ward off some 
impending danger. These adjustments of Christianity 
to the age in which we live and the exigencies of the 
occasion Avill take hold upon men's consciences and 
move the world. Xor can this be done by a single 
effort, by a spasmodic impulse. Whatever phases of 
new truth present themselves, they must be ingrafted 
upon the old gospel and must rely for success npon 
the motives which it furnishes, ^e must not shrink 
from the application of its principles in any direction 
which is productive of human welfare. It is no credit 
to the Christian world that the men who fought slavery 
were compelled to do so independently of all sympathy 
or aid from the church. The great wonder is not, 
when they saw the church, in violation of the spirit 
and teaching of the ^d aster, hinder their progress and 
seek to crush their efforts to save men from brutaliza- 
tion, that many of them were driven almost to 
skepticism, but that so tew of them in losing faith in 
man still held on to God. It will l)e no credit to the 
church if the theory prevail which some of our modern 
political demagogues are preaching, religion is one 
thing and politics another." If Christianity can not 
be carried into politics, into science, into business, into 
every department of life where men can rightfully go, 
then this age has outgrown it. and we want a new 
gospel which will meet the wants of man. But He 
who came to preach glad tidings to all and to proclaim 
relief to the captives will not leave himself nor his truth 
without a witness. If one department of the church 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



191 



refuses to follow the indications of providence, another 
Tvill he called to do the work; and thus His truth 
must triumph. 

This is an age of close investigations in certain 
channels. We are perhaps more carefully than ever 
scanning our beliefs. We take little for granted; and 
whatever can not give a reason for its existence, to us 
does not exist. It must seem to every thoughtful 
man that there are indications of the unsettling of the 
minds of men as to the foundation-principles of the 
Christian faith. There are many who are practically 
disbelievers. There are many who have not reached 
this positive state of mind, who are simply failing to 
believe — are not convinced. We see much of this 
feeling in our literature — not in that which is the 
organ of the disbelievers, but in the best in the secular 
press. Divine things are made light of as though of 
little value. Religious things are spoken of as things 
to be entered upon in a perfunctory manner. The 
T^hole religious lite is to be worn as a chain or amulet 
to keep away bad influences. Lack of confidence 
in the integrity of church-members shows the same 
suspicions. When some new-fiedged sciolist enters the 
field against Christianity with a noisy display of trump- 
ets and proclaims some wonderful discovery which is 
calculated to destroy the foundations of the Christian 
faith, how many are seriously alarmed and begin to 
seek a way of escape? How many are in daily dread 
of the fiood of infidelity which they expect to come 
iipon the earth and unsettle all the foundations? How 
few believe with implicit confidence that the founda- 
tions of Grod standeth sure." 



192 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



If there be any sucli tendency in human thought 
as has been named, — and it seems to me that it can not 
be questioned, — then we need a revival which will 
result in the re-establishment, in the minds of all 
unsettled persons, of a conviction of the great facts of 
Christianity. Xo mere sentimentalism, no spasmodic 
enthusiasm will reach the design. A thinking people 
must be reached through their judgment. There are 
times in ourselves when the emotional impulse will 
supply the lack of thought. There may be commu- 
nities where this may prevail, and the people, with a. 
feeble appreciation of the truth, may be religious. 
But when times of trial come these persons must 
begin to dig deeper into their natures and plant more 
sure foundations, or they will be swept away with the 
incoming tide of unbelief. AVe believe as our fathers 
did, and because they did ; but the time will come when 
we must re-adjust ourselves upon a more permanent 
basis. AVhile those under the immediate influence of 
this emotional influence may be safe for the present^ 
many are beyond such feeling. We want to establish 
in their minds this religious sentiment, and we must 
do it upon Avell-established convictions of religious 
truth. 

If, then, the forms of thought are not such as wil^ 
commend the truth to the reason and conscience of 
mankind, we must change them. "We want more than 
a setting forth of the general defense of Christianity. 
"We need of course to examine the foundations of our 
belief in the Scriptures, and be able to meet the objec- 
tions which men will bring against the system. This 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



193 



work can never end. The main arguments may be 
the same, but year after year they must be brought into 
connection with the thought and life of the present. 
Besides this, we want an aggressive movement which 
shall carry conviction to all hearts. We want the 
truth clad in such forms that it shall commend itself. 
Whatever forms of thought may have been adapted 
to the age of Chrysostom, of Wyckliffe, of Calvin, they 
have had their day. A new age with new hopes and 
new purposes is upon us. If we would reach the men 
of our age we must come to them in the spirit of the 
times. Men in rebelling at these antiquated and 
unnatural forms think it necessary to reject Chris- 
tianity itself. It is not the truth of scripture that has 
oflended the reason, it is the husk which contained it. 
The religion which this age wants and which we 
must help to bring about, is one which commends 
itself to the reason, and asks nothing of faith which 
is unreasonable. The theology which we teach this 
age must be a reasonable one. Not that there are 
not mysteries in the plan of redemption and in the 
providence of G-od which reason, 'Hired and blind," is 
not able to compass; but to ask men to have faith in 
the church is against the dictates of their reason, is 
the blindest folly. There is a system which calls itself 
Rationalism, and yet has very little reason in it. But 
a true rationalism which insists that religion is the 
most reasonable thing in the world, and that whatever 
is contrary to the teachings of the very nature with 
which God has gifted us, can not become a matter of 
belief, is such a rationalism as the Bible approves, and 
will commend itself to all thoughtful men. 



194 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



Not only must the great facts of Christianity take on 
the form of sound words so as to commend themselves 
to honest minds, but the lives which are the fruit of 
the Spirit must so shine forth that they will teach the 
same grand truths. These are the examples which 
men are to imitate. What sort of human characters 
must we have so as to produce the best results among 
men? Christianity is essentially the same in all, — 
namely, the subjection of the heart and life to God's 
service; but it will manifest itself differently under 
different circumstances. This is due in part to con- 
stitutional temperament and partly to the early train-, 
iug of the individual himself, or to the influence of 
the community in which he may live. Each church, 
to some extent, has its peculiar style of Christian life. 
All are of value, but valuable for different purposes. 
At one time our religious culture will tend to a 
thoughtful, sedate, undemonstrative piety; at one time 
to emotional experiences ; at another to an outward 
vigorous life. 

In some of our churches we seem of late years to 
have given special prominence to the emotional ele- 
ment. For a long time these emotional manifestations 
have been the tests of conversion, and because of these 
we have been so slow to recognize the conversion of 
children. We are anxious to have those who are 
converted to come out clear, as we say, which usually 
means with much intensity of feeling. When one 
applies for membership who can not point to days and 
nights of deep grief, of despair and struggle, of mingled 
hope and fear, we are in doubt of his conversion, and 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



195 



his after-life will usually be measured by the intensity 
of this feeling. The writer was present at the examin- 
ation of an applicant for license to preach the gospel 
when the chief examiner inquired as to his doabts and 
fears, his difficulties and troubles, ere he could get the 
consent of his mind to preach. When he found that 
the young man w^io had heard the Divine call and had 
responded promptly, had experienced no such troubles 
he was loth to grant his request. Even when we 
have talked about the higher life and have looked 
toward it, it has been thought of and talked of chiefly 
as an excited state of the sensibilities. When seekers 
after God's favor have been instructed they have been 
taught to expect such an exalted state of feeling as the 
desirable thing in their experience, and they were to 
measure their after-growth by the continuation of such 
ecstatic states. "We want a religion we can feel," 
says the enthusiast. " I have not enjoyed myself as 
much this week as last," says the good sister, meaning 
thereby that she is farther from God and less religious 
than one w^eek ago. She may not have had such an 
exuberance of feeling and yet may have been growing 
in grace all the w4iile. We have thus, unconsciously 
perhaps, been turning the thoughts of the people 
generally toward the matter of feeling and encourag- 
ing them to measure their religious condition by this 
the most uncertain, because the most variable of all 
measurements. We have neglected the ethical and 
moral part and made prominent the emotional. Re- 
ligion as a feeling has been pressed beyond measure, 
while religion as well-doing has been very much 
neglected. 



196 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



By this false standard of piety which we have 
unconsciously established we have made light of w^ell- 
doing. We have made the difference between the 
Christian man and the man of the world to consist 
not so much in the fact that one does right and the 
other does wrong, as that one enjoys certain good 
feelings which the other does not. The man of the 
world often tells us that he is as honest, industrious, 
and obedient, and in short as good as members of the 
church; and judged by the actual facts his statement 
may be correct. As a result of this false conception, 
religion is losing its power over men. The emotions 
are not to be the result of direct effort but the out- 
growth of thought and action. They can not be relied 
upon as a sure standard. More than this, when such 
a condition is made prominent and men can not at the 
moment produce what is called for they palm off a 
spurious feeling and thus hinder their own true devel- 
opment. Furthermore, we put a false criterion before 
the community. What the church esteems of little 
value the community will soon estimate in the same 
way. If we make little account of righteousness it wdll 
do the same. Hence the community soon becomes 
penetrated with a kind of moral miasma Avhich weak- 
ens all right aspirations. We mourn over the immor- 
ality of the age and the crimes in high places. Scarcely 
a day but some man, in honorable church-relations,, 
has defrauded the county treasury, has purloined bank- 
funds, or eloped with his neighbor's wife. May not 
this moral weakness which seems to be prevalent in 
our time be a result of our failure to uphold right- 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



197 



doing as the ultimatum of God's law. These moral 
virtues are the pillars of society, the result of a genuine 
Christianity, and will exist and prevail only when it is 
taught and lived in its purity. 

We need especially to lose sight in a measure of our 
present method of estimating piety by an ecstatic 
condition of the sensibilities and reproach those old 
truths which Christ and the apostles so earnestly advo- 
cated, ^'Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these 
least commandments, and shall teach men so he shall be 
called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoev- 
er shall do and teach them, the same shall he called great 
in the kingdom of heaven." " Except your righteous- 
ness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and 
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." We need especially to keep prominent 
this teaching : He that hath my commandments, and 
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that 
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love 
him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode 
with him." " To obey is better than sacrifice, and the 
keeping of the commandments of God better than 
burnt-oflerings." In that ''we must understand and 
inculcate the idea that righteousness alone is piety 
and obedience is saving faith ; that the highest Chris- 
tian's attainment is nothing more and the lowest noth- 
ing less ; and that the sole purpose of the manifestations 
of God in the soul is the fruit of the Spirit, the virtues 
and graces of the Christian life. The church needs to 
be turned toward the experience of obedience and 
righteousness and duty-doing as both conversion and 
sanctification." 



198 



THE RESPOXSIBILITY OF 



Hold up this phase of Christianity aixl the church 
will spring into a more active life ; our piety will have 
more sinewy strength and less flabbiness. It would 
no longer be drifted about by every wind of doctrine, 
but built upon the firm foundation of obedience, man- 
ifesting itself in right action; the storms of life would 
in vain beat against it. The church would establish 
more permanently that large class which drifts into it 
regularlj' when a wave of religious enthusiasm sweeps 
near them and are left high and dry upon the banks- 
as soon as the tide returns. If we put morality in 
opposition to religion and treat it as of little value the 
world will estimate it at our standard. If we insist 
upon right-doing as the all-important consideration, a 
similar conviction will be enkindled in the minds of 
irreligious men. We will not only elevate the stand- 
ard of piety in the church but will bring the outside 
world in subjection to our teaching, and the tone of 
public morality will be greatly elevated — a consumma- 
tion devoutly to be wished. Do this, and it will reach 
many of the ills of the day. Carry this principle into 
politics, and how it will sweep away the chains of 
party fealty which bind men hand and foot. Recog- 
nize in your social and political relations your obliga- 
tions to do the Master's will, and it will help to solve 
many of the educational questions of the day. It will 
check the love for emotional display; the passion for 
wealth which is corrupting the nation. Press home 
upon men the true conception of their relation to God. 
Teach them that what they have is not their own ; 
that every power they possess may be used in the 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



199 



proper acquisition of wealth, but that every dollar 
obtained is mortgaged by the Divine law to be used 
in the service of God and mankind ; that the abund- 
ance a man possesses puts him under greater obligation 
to the divine Being. Let men learn that he who 
plows for the glory of God and the good of humanity 
is honoring his Master and obeying his commands as 
certainly as he who stands in the sacred desk. 

What this university does for the government, for 
the educational work, for the prosperity of the Church 
mast be done through its children. For better, or for 
worse you represent us. Your work at this juncture, 
so far from being finished is just begun. The graduate, 
whether male or female, who goes out from the uni- 
versity and then throws away his books is utterly 
unworthy ever to have been within a university. Much 
of the permanent work, indeed much of the valuable 
work of this world is drudgery. The life of a scholar 
must be a life of incessant work. When olfher men 
sleep he must study. The time that others give to 
social pleasures he must give to his books, i^ext to 
his God there is nothing a scholar should so mach 
as love his books. How many college-graduates can 
say as did Thomas Jefferson in the year of his election 
to the presidency, and when fifty-five years of age: 
"I enjoy Homer in his own language infinitely better 
than Pope's translation. I thank on my knees him 
who directed my early education for having put in 
my possession this rich source of delight ; and I would 
not exchange it for anything which I could then have 
acquired and have not since acquired." When the 



200 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 



old man eloquent was in the presidential chair, " he 
found time amid the incessant calls and interruptions 
of his office to address a series of letters to his young- 
est son, — some of them written in the busiest portion 
of the session, — containing an elaborate analysis of the 
orations of Cicero, designed to aid the young man in 
the perusal of this his favorite author. Some of these 
letters," says Mr. Everet, "would be thought a good 
day's work for a scholar by profession." 

"What the church needs," says some one, "is not 
more members but more workers." What the world 
needs is workers. It as yet owes you nothing. You 
owe it all there is of you — your thoughts, your emo- 
tions, your actions, your life. Whether your individual 
sphere in life shall be a public or private one, make 
it one full of good deeds. Have honest convictions, 
formed after careful deliberation, and give them 
courageous utterance. Be loyal to the truth, whatever 
be the consequences. Not only teach mankind how 
they shall live, but give them a correct example. None 
are under such obligations to mankind as you. If you 
live to the age which we may presume you will reach, 
great questions involving the well-being of thousands 
will be up for settlement, and you must help to adjust 
them. You have entered into the kingdom of letters at 
a very auspicious moment. May you do the work 
allotted to you in such a manner as to have the appro- 
bation of your own conscience, the grateful affection 
of your-fellow men ; and may posterity rise up and 
call you blessed. 



CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS. 



*' Go forth, true hearts, and resolutely dare, 
With minds on fire for action every day; 
And if a tear fall on the task of care, 
In memory of these hours that glide away. 
Let it go by. 
Devote your hearts to God; to brother-men 
Your aid, your labor, earnest prayers, and then 

No cause to sigh. 
For He who holds the blue heaven in his hand 
Will lead you up to his own promised land." 



Ah ffiburatBb ^mistrtj i\jz Want of ttjB Agje. 



I SPEAK to-night to those of you who trust that 
in the providence of God you have been called to 
preach the gospel of Christ to a ruined world. A 
fearful responsibility is upon him who attempts to 
teach the young, because in his hands rests their 
present and eternal destiny. A still greater respon- 
sibility rests upon him who is instrumental in forming 
and molding the character of the embassador for 
Christ. In benefiting him, he indirectly blesses 
hundreds of others. In leading him astray, he ruins 
for time and eternity. Trusting in the God of our 
spirits to teach you aright wherein I shall fail, I shall 
present to you some considerations showing the urgent 
demand, at the present time, for an educated ministry. 
This subject should have the careful consideration of 
all intelligent Christian men, because in proper con- 
clusions upon it rest your own welfare and the success 
and prosperity of the Church. 

In approaching this subject, I am immediately met 
by an oft-repeated objection which it might be well 
enough to dispose of in the beginning. "Are not the 
apostles said to have been ignorant and [unlearned 
men, and were they not successful?" If we should 
confess this, for argument sake, and infer that we 



204 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



therefore need the same class of men now, we would 
show greater presumption than common sense or 
piety. Acknowledging them to have perfectly suited 
the age in which they lived, it does not at all follow 
that they would suit this age. The world has not 
been stationary. In every department there has been 
progress. The position of affairs has materially 
changed. 'New impulses have been at work. E'ew 
currents of thought have been formed. In short, a 
new age is upon us, and we want men in every respect 
suited to this age. 

They were unlearned and common people,'^ the 
original tells us. None of them, perhaps, except Paul, 
had ever sat at the feet of Gamaliel. They were not 
men who were accustomed to administer the affairs of 
government, or to take part in civil transactions, but 
they came from the common walks of life. Were 
they ignorant men? Some of them have written 
books. Do not their books completely refute this 
assertion? It requires no skillful eye to see that they 
were men of sterling good sense, prudent and intelli- 
gent. John's writings show him to have been well 
acquainted with the schools of Grecian philosophy; 
and the knowledge he there obtained he made sub- 
servient to Christian purposes. Luke was a physician. 
The remainder, by their writings and their actions^ 
give unmistakable evidence that they were men who 
understood their great work and were fitted for it. 

Who calls them ignorant? Read the record. The 
rulers, and elders and scribes, with Ananias and 
Caiaphas, were assembled together, and, having list- 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



205 



ened to the addresses of these men, they perceived that 
they were unlettered. So they may have been. Igno- 
rant, as regards a knowledge of the traditions of the 
Sadducees and Pharisees, in which consisted their 
greatest amount of learning, but skilled in that 
knowledge necessary to instruct and enlighten the 
heart. 

These men were instructed for three long years by 
that best of all teachers. Him, " who spake as never 
man spake." He found them dull students, and had 
occasion to reprove them for their tardiness in learning 
the great truths which he came to teach. Almost 
wearied in his efforts he says to one, " Have I been so 
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, 
Philip?" He resorted to the most simple illustrations, to 
the affairs of every-day life with which they were sup- 
posed to be familiar, in order the more thoroughly and 
eflectually to imbue their minds with a knowledge of 
the doctrines he came to preach. After having labored 
faithfully to instruct them in the things pertaining to 
Christianity, for fear they might not fully understand 
his meaning, or might have some misconceptions of the 
truth, he pressed home upon their attention the appro- 
priate and pertinent question, "Have ye understood 
all these things ?" After he had given them line upon 
line and precept upon precept, for the space of three 
years, even then they were not fitted for the great 
work. They must " tarry at Jerusalem until endued 
with power from on high." They may interpose 
objections and be anxious to enter the field, but the 
command was to wait ; and wait they did. 



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"But," says one, "they were inspired." So their 
writings testify. IVe have no account that they were 
inspired in their ordinary administrations. Their 
powers may have been strengthened and invigorated, 
yet we have no other evidence than that they were 
left to the ordinary and natural use of their powers. 
If they were inspired and needed not to acquire 
knowledge in the ordinary ways, does it therefore 
follow that because we are not inspired we should 
remain ignorant? So much the stronger reason why 
we should use all the means at our command, so as to 
bring ourselves nearer the position occupied by the 
apostles. 

Look at the effects of apostolic preaching. Good 
resulted. Many were converted ; churches were 
established; the people of God were strengthened. 
Wherever they went the power of the Most High 
accompanied them ; and that power was manifested in 
the elevation of mankind. If ignorant men can go 
forth now and accomplish the same great work ; can 
thus instruct and edify the church ; can establish and 
build up Christian associations ; can lay the foundation 
for good results to come; can thus benefit their fellow- 
men and promote the good of their Master's cause; 
if, in the midst of the evils surrounding them, they 
can show themselves " wise as serpents and harmless 
as doves," then let us as a church send forth none but « 
ignorant men. As long as they can not do this, and 
as long as their influence is weakened and their people 
perish for lack of knowledge, let us not adduce the 
example of the apostles in support of the proposition ] 



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that God demands ignorant men to stand upon the 
walls of Zion. 

That Christ would appoint ignorant men to be his 
standard-bearers is utterly irreconcilable with the 
whole tenor of the Scriptures and the whole course of 
his own life. That he did do so is contrary to all Jew- 
ish history. Perhaps there never was a people so uni- 
versally educated as the J ews. Many of our Savior's 
remarks indicate this. How often he asked them, 
"Have ye not read what Moses saith?" "have ye not 
read in the Scriptures ?" evidently implying that the 
common people (because he addressed them) could and 
did read the writings of Moses and the prophets. We 
are told that when Pilate placed over the head of the 
Redeemer at his crucifiction the inscription in "letters 
of Greek and Latin and Hebrew," that "this title was 
read by many of the Jews." It was enjoined upon 
the people to teach their children to read and under- 
stand the ordinances which God had made known. 
"The words which I command thee this day shall be 
in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently to 
thy children, and thou shalt write them upon the posts 
of thine house and upon thy gates." 

Under the Jewish dispensation, the priests and 
Levites were not illiterate men. The Levitical cities 
were places of learning. The clergy, judges, lawyers, 
physicians, and teachers of the people came principally 
from the tribe of Levi. By the law of Moses this tribe 
had no inheritance in the division of the land. It was 
chosen for the service of the sanctuary, and had to be 
supported by contributions from the whole nation. 



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From this tribe came the priests, who had charge of 
the tabernacle and the temple. They scattered them- 
selves in diflerent parts of the country, instructing 
their countrymen. They were employed in writing 
and circulating the Scriptures, and in explaining them 
to the people whenever they had an opportunity. 
They were consulted in all cases of doubt or uncer- 
tainty about the truth of the Scriptures. 

Such were the men appointed by God under the old 
Jewish dispensation, to instruct the people in divine 
truth, — not ignorant and untutored men, but scholars 
— the most learned men of the nation. The people 
were intelligent, and needed intelligent teachers. A 
whole tribe was set apart for the purpose of educating 
and training themselves for their appointed work. 
Did any doubt rest upon the mind of any one, these 
men were called in to interpret. They explained and 
enforced the Scriptures in public and in private. "ITo 
illiterate man or mechanic was allowed to speak in 
the synagogue under any circumstances, but only the 
learned." — {Jennings' Jeio. Ant. B. II., C. 2.) I can 
find no instance in the Old Testament history where 
God commanded ignorant and illiterate men to stand 
before the people, and statedly declare his law unto 
them. In all cases men thoroughly qualified were 
chosen ; or if not thus fitted, they underwent the neces- 
sary training before they were sent forth upon their 
mission. Has God changed his policy now? 

More than this, the Jews had special schools for the 
education of their ministers. Says the learned Dr. 
Lightfoot, " It has been the way of God to instruct 



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his people by a studious and learned ministry ever 
since he gave a written word to instruct them. Who 
were the standing ministry of Israel all the time from 
the giving of the law till the captivity in Babylon ? 
l^ot prophets or inspired men. These were but occa- 
sional teachers. They were the priests and Levites, 
who became learned in the law by study. And for 
this end they were distributed into forty -eight cities, as 
so many uinversities, where they studied law together'^ 
and from these were sent out into the several syna- 
gogues to teach the people." The same author also 
says that "contributions were made for the support of 
these students while they studied in the universities, 
as well as afterward when they preached in the syna- 
gogues." Further on he says, There were among 
the Jews authorized individual teachers of great emi- 
nence, who had divinity schools in which they ex- 
pounded the law to their scholars or disciples. Of 
these divinity schools there is frequent mention made 
among the Jewish writers, more especially of the 
schools of Hillel and Shammai." Such a divinity 
professor was Gamaliel, at whose feet the great apostle 
of the gentiles received his education. 

Yery early in Jewish history we read of the schools 
of the prophets. In one of them Samuel himself 
taught theology. The most prominent of these schools 
were at Naioth, Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho. A large 
number of students were in attendance upon these 
institutions. They were educated in the knowledge 
of religion, and were under the supervision of some 
prophet, who was generally inspired. They were 



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thus qualified to become public preachers, which was 
a part of the business of prophets on Sabbath-days and 
festivities. The prophets whom God inspired were 
generally chosen from these schools. 

In the formation and establishment of the church, 
God took care that the messengers who declared his 
will to the people should on all occasions be fully com- 
petent for the task. They 'underwent the necessary 
training until they were workmen that needed not to 
be ashamed. These schools received the Lord's appro- 
bation. He himself grew in wisdom and stature, as 
did all the prophets. He came from the lower class 
of people, but was not content to remain on the same 
level with them. At the early age of twelve he aston- 
ished his hearers by his knowledge; and when he com- 
menced his public work, all the treasures of knowledge 
abounded in his intellectual nature. 

I proceed to notice the direct arguments in favor of 
an educated ministry. 

The very fact that the Scriptures have been written in 
what are now called the dead languages, seems to demand 
this. The very Spirit that gave the apostles utterance 
upon the day of Pentecost, so that Romans, Jews, 
Parthians, Medes, and Cretans, and all that were as- 
sembled, could hear and understand them in their own 
language, could as easily have given them the inspira- 
tion to multiply written translations of the Bible, as 
do what he did. He did not do this. He has given 
us the glowing imagery of the Old Testament couched 
in the Hebrew language, and the pointed logic of the 
I^ew in the Greek. It is true we have excellent 



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translations of these, but they are only translations. 
The words are the very words of God, in which 
thoughts, like precious gems of metal, are locked? 
requiring only the keys of study to open them. He 
who can not read these has never seen the inspired 
word of God as it really is — as it came from G od him- 
self. He has not heard the oracle of the temple speak, 
but merely some fallible man like himself, standing at 
the door repeating as well as he could the utterance. 
He has not seen the original portrait of God's will, as 
drawn by himself, as every teacher should. He has 
merely looked upon a second-hand picture — a human 
copy of the portrait. The very fact that God has 
designedly locked up his richest truths in these dead 
languages, strongly indicates that he would have the 
guides of his people to " show themselves approved," 
and that he is not one who patronizes stupidity or 
encourages willful ignorance. 

This leads to another thought: No man can prop- 
erly understand the ivord of God unless he is to some 
extent conversant ivith these languages. Every student 
knows that the best translations at our command can 
not, do not give the true meaning of the original. 
There are nice shades of meaning, minute distinctions, 
that will throw light upon the whole thought, and 
which a translation can not give. In the formation 
of the original word, its derivations and modifications, 
its history, — because a nation's history is written in its 
language, — there is often embodied a world of mean- 
ing, vast magazines of thought, which only the words 
themselves can reveal. The skillful linguist sees all 



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these things, and they modify and correct all his 
impressions of truth. We have an excellent transla- 
tion; and yet often the precise meaning is not given — 
at least not given so as to be free from ambiguity. 
In the Hebrew especially, the emotional element i& 
necessary to a correct understanding; and yet it is 
almost impossible to render this, and frequently in 
our version it has not been attempted. The emotion 
very often rests in some little particle, some particular 
collocation of the words, and very often in the absence 
of the words themselves. The very moment we 
attempt to put it into words, and make a distinct 
logical statement, we lose all its power. We may use 
periphrastic forms (even this we can not do unless 
linguists), resort to various expedients, so as to approx- 
imate the meaning ; but even then we have lost the 
intensity. We may dissect the body, see where the 
life was; but to a great extent the life itself, the all- 
animating power, is gone. Our translation often fails 
to give us as much of that life as it might do. In the 
present translation we read, "From everlasting unto 
everlasting thou art God" — a simple statement. In 
the original we read, "From everlasting unto ever- 
lasting thou — 0 God!" — a sentence containing the 
same thought as the other, and yet more efl'ectually 
brought home to us through the medium of the heav- 
enly emotion accompanying it. "Thy throne, O 
God! is forever and ever." Throw out the interpola- 
tions, and you read, "Thy throne — 0 God! — for- 
ever and ever." If the reader can put himself in the 
position of the writer, he finds in the meaning of a 



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213 



particle, or the omission of a word sometimes, an 
intensity of emotion which the reader of the mere 
translation can never get. " The fool hath said in his 
heart, there is no God." Now read, "The fool says 
in his heart — no God." How slight the change, and 
yet how great the difference ! In one case a simple 
statement; in the other, the poor fool talking to him- 
self, or musing, as the original strictly teaches, or 
rather the foolish thoughts talking with each other. 

God is not in all his thoughts," says the common 
version, implying that he is in some. Says the Hebrew, 

No God — all his thoughts." It is not a forgetfulness. 
The conceptions, ideas, thoughts, and emotions, indeed 
his whole soul, is godless, wholly atheistic. 

In the omission of words, sometimes we see this 
richness, this depth of meaning. Says our translation, 

Let it alone this year, and if it bear fruit, well." Now 
read the original, " Let it alone this year, and if it 
bear fruit" — no answer given, and yet more express- 
ive than words could make it. "Take no thought 
for your life, what ye shall eat," says our version. 
The Greek reads, "Do not be troubled or annoyed 
about your life," implying not that we should care 
nothing about the affairs of this life, but that they 
should not be allowed to trouble us. He who con- 
fers all other blessings will also grant these. "And 
John was baptizing at Enon, near to Salem, because 
there was much water there," says our version. There- 
fore, argue our Baptist brethren, if he needed much 
water he must have desired to immerse the people. 
Says the original, " Many streams " (poUa udata) — . 



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many little streams or creeks, for which that country 
' was remarkable, and not one deep river. "But to sit 
on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to 
give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is pre- 
pared." Our translation would imply that it did not 
rest in the hands of the Savior, but that some other 
had the disposing of it. This is not the true render- 
ing. Says the Greek, " To sit," &c., " is not mine to 
give, except to those for whom it is prepared." If 
these persons are those to whom I have appointed this 
position then they shall have it. 

These few selections out of a thousand are sufficient 
to convince you that the minister who has access to 
the original Scriptures holds in his hands a power 
which the reader of the mere translation can never 
possess. He has access to a vast treasury, which no 
one save the scholar can behold. 

Much other knowledge is necessary to a proper 
understanding of the Scriptures. Every age has its 
distinguishing characteristics. The peculiar modes of 
thought, and all the surrounding circumstances which 
give power to the ideas in one age of the world, in 
another have lost their force. We must place our- 
selves in the condition of the people, and see from 
their stand-point, if we would understand as they did. 
We must become familiar with oriental expressions 
and peculiarities of thought, with eastern imagery, 
the structure of Hebrew poetry, the manners and 
customs of the inhabitants, their inner and public life^ 
their various kinds of business, the workings of their 
social, religious, and political systems, the great central 



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215 



truths which everywhere stirred the nation, the pecul- 
iarities of the country, its geography and the nature 
of its scenery, with its influence upon the training of 
the people and the production of their literature, the 
wealth and grandeur of its cities, its power for defens- 
ive and aggressive war, the influence of other nations 
in controlling its life-progress, a knowledge of fhe 
history of other peoples with its bearing upon the ful- 
fillment of prophecy, the great part they respectively 
acted in carrying out the designs of the Deity, where 
the particular books of the Scriptures were written, 
when and by whom, the nature of the authors, age in 
which they lived, a knowledge of the arts and sciences 
which the people then possessed, a general history of the 
literature of the day, the aim of the writers, the class 
of persons for whom they wrote, and the schools of 
philosophy then prevalent; how these books have been 
preserved, and whether or not we have the inspired 
Scriptures ; have there been any interpolations, or is 
the copy correct? are the statements therein recorded 
mere theories, or facts capable of being substantiated 
by testimony? a knowledge of the facts of history in 
their bearing upon the interpretation of Scripture 
scenes ; the records of Egypt, and the stony pillars of 
Assyria and Babylon; the teachings of geology, as 
confirming the Mosaic account of creation ; the facts 
of physiological science, as asserting the unity of man ; 
of chemistry, as illustrating many passages of sacred 
scripture. 

I need not enumerate. 'Not a fact in nature, not a 
page in history, not a truth in mental and moral 



216 



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science, not a principle in philosophy, scarcely a 
thought in all the vast range of literature, art, or 
science, but niay be made subservient to the great 
work of unfolding the meaning of divine truth. 

I argue the need of a thorough education, in order 
to make the minister a skillful teacher — "a workman 
that needeth not to be ashamed." To this end every 
science may pay tribute, and every field of thought 
afford material. His commission commands him to 
"go teach all nations." It is not enough that men 
have been converted; they must be edified and in- 
structed; must be trained and nurtured in religion. 
It is not enough that an army be raised; it must be 
diciplined and led forth to battle. It is not enough 
that the farmer sows his seed ; he must cultivate and 
train and prune until he can gather the full sheaf into 
his barn. To instruct, was the business of Christ 
himself. The minister must come in contact with all 
classes of mind; men of various shades of opinion; 
men of varied intellectual culture and diversity of 
talent. He must be prepared to meet the ignorant 
and the intelligent ; to solve the doubts of one and 
put to silence the sophisms of the other. He must be 
all things to all men. He must be a man of varied 
knowledge, of ripe thought, of logical reasoning-pow- 
ers, and skillful in the doctrines and interpretations 
of scripture. 

A fine example, showing to the minister the neces- 
sity for having boundless resources of knowledge, is 
found in the ministerial life of the Savior. His aim 
was to instruct the people; and every thought, every 



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217 



illustration from nature, every fact of science, every 
truth in history that vrould avail in the accomplish- 
ment of his purpose was employed. What beautiful 
simplicity and adaptability in all his teachings ! How 
pertinent his thoughts, and how opportunely selected! 
In his hands the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, 
the lily of the valley, the sand of the sea-shore, the 
hair of the head, the thirst of the widow, the unfruit- 
ful fig-tree, the cities of the hill, all become instructive 
and impressive sermons. Standing by Jacob's well, 
he represents true piety under the image of ''living 
water." When he meets the fishermen he asks, 
'' What man is there of you, whom if his son ask a 
fish will give him a serpent?" After multiplying the 
loaves, having the minds of his hearers intent upon 
the miracle, he tells them, ''I am the bread of life; he 
that cometh unto me shall never hunger." When 
seed-time approaches he exclaims, "Say ye not four 
months, and then cometh the harvest?" While teach- 
ing his disciples, and observing a city upon an adjoin- 
ing hill, he tells them, " Ye are a city set apon a hill 
that can not be hid." While the sheep are standing 
around the temple, ready to be sacrificed for the feast 
-of the passover, he says, "I am the good shepherd, 
and lay down my life for the sheep." Having partaken 
of the wine and made it a symbol of his blood, he tells 
them, " I am the vine, ye are the branches." 

When on his way from Capernaum to the lake, 
treading among lilies, and with sparrows above his 
head, he teaches his disciples a Providence who cares 

j for them. At the feast of the tabernacles, while the 
( 15 

I 



218 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



people were drawing water out of the fountain of 
Siloam to pour upon the sacrifices, and while they sing, 
"With joy shall ye draw water out of the well of 
salvation," Jesus tells them, "If any man thirst, let 
him come to me and drink." Immediately before 
giving sight to the blind he proclaims, "I am the 
light of the world." In seed-time he relates the par- 
able of the man " who went forth to sow." In the 
spring, when the branches put forth their leaves, he 
says, Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees ; when 
they now shoot forth, ye say and know of yourselves 
that summer is nigh at hand ; so likewise ye, when ye 
see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom 
of God is nigh at hand." 

In his parables you see the same wisdom, the same 
happy simplicity. In this method of instruction, 
practiced by all nations, he excelled. You see him 
using the most simple circumstances in life to press 
home upon his hearers the thrilling truths of the 
gospel. By the ten virgins, he teaches us the necessity 
of a preparation for heaven ; the pearl of great price, 
the exceeding value of Christ as offered to us in the 
gospel; the talents, the improvement of our time and 
all our powers for our Master's use ; the house and 
kingdom divided against themselves, the necessity of 
union; the seed growing secretly, the silent yet effi- 
cient influence of divine truth ; the blind leading the 
blind, the great danger of trusting to false teachers; 
the good Samaritan, the necessity of showing mercy 
to our neighbor; the lost sheep, the love of God in 
caring for sinful man. 



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219 



All these subjects are happily chosen. The plan is 
wisely unfolded. The narration is interesting, and 
the meaning definite and clear. 'No story too simple, 
no allusion too magnificent, no thought too grand, if 
it will but illustrate the truth and rivet it more firmly 
upon the minds of the hearers. 

"We have another example in the Scriptures, show- 
ing us how all knowledge may be made useful in the 
exposition of truth, the example of a man we would 
do well to imitate. 

UpJiesus was a prominent city of the East, renowned 
for its learning and idolatry. Here stood the wonder 
of the world, the pride of Ionic wealth and Ionic 
architecture — the temple of the great Ephesian Diana. 
Here fiourished magic, with all the tricks of eastern 
jugglery. Thousands of traders in talismans here lived 
and grew wealthy on the superstitions of the people. 
Here were celebrated schools of rhetoric, learning, and 
philosophy, that the Greeks were always accustomed to 
support wherever their language was spoken; schools 
which, if they did not aid materially in the discovery 
of much new truth, at least promoted a certain kind 
of intellectual culture. Here, too, the Jew, the home- 
less one, who had a foothold but no resting-place upon 
almost every soil, had built a synagogue. Here were 
Jews, the disciples of John the Baptist, waiting 
patiently for that great Deliverer whom he foretold 
to be near at hand. 

Paul enters Ephesus. He had been here previous 
to this time ; but the visit was a transient one. He 
goes into the synagogue and preaches to his country- 



220 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



men. Although a servant of God and apostle to the 
gentiles, he has not renounced his nationality. The 
gospel which he preaches is but a consummation of 
that which Moses and the prophets taught. How full 
of rich suggestions; what food for thought in his con- 
yersations as he discourses in the synagogue for the 
space of three months, while one after another of those 
who had long been agitated by conflicting theories, 
and who had long been wavering, now yield to his 
arguments, and with joy acknowledge Christ to be 
the Savior of the world — the Messiah that was to 
come. Parties are formed. A controversy arises 
among them. A few adhere to the apostle, and these 
form the germ of a religious community. But Paul 
was more catholic in his views; more noble-hearted, 
more liberal, perhaps, than any Jew that ever pre- 
ceded him. He looks beyond his own precincts and 
interest, to ofier the gospel to G-recian Asia. He 
wants to attack paganism in its very stronghold. 
Here where Idolatry has raised her temples, and laid 
the foundations deep, he will ply the most powerful 
engines of his artillery. Here at the very confluence 
of Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, and oriental idolatries, 
he will propagate truth that will overturn this great 
temple, drive the idols to the moles and bats, and 
send the gospel of the Redeemer throughout the land. 
He is not content until he can stand where he shall 
have power, with the great lever of the gospel, to 
move the world of superstition and degradation that 
surrounds him. 
That little band of disciples as they came together 



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221 



for worship and fraternal communion, could give him 
no such a position. He burns with a holy ambition 
to dare and do for his Master. This desired position 
he found, through the kind providence of God, in one 
of the schools of Grecian philosophy with which that 
city could not fail to be supplied. In these schools 
there was a professed inquiry after truth ; and accord- 
ingly a freedom of debate and discussion was allowed, 
which gave abundant advantages. A man of letters, 
skilled in the wisdom of the Greeks and the knowl- 
edge of the Scriptures, he availed himself of the kind- 
ness of one of these teachers. He participated in these 
discussions. Says the historian Luke, he was "found 
disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus; and 
this he continued for the space of two years." Here 
was the offer, and he accepted. 'No better opportu- 
nity for preaching to the gentile population, in fact 
the entire population of city and country, could have 
been found, than the one which now presented itself. 
He flung himself into the midst of the struggle, and 
with a brawny arm at his command dealt mighty 
blows for his Master's cause. A learned man, gifted 
with all the acquisitions of the schools and a knowl- 
edge of the arts and sciences, with unsurpassed elo- 
quence and logic at his command, every literary and 
scientific argument must be brought into service to 
do battle for the truth. Day after day he debated in 
that literary institution for the space of two years. 
And so successful was he in diffusing light among the 
inhabitants of that city, as well as of the surrounding 
country, that Luke tells us, "All they who dwelt in 



222 



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Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jew and 
G-reek." The light which he was daily putting forth 
in the school of Tyrannus had its effect upon other 
minds, men of high intellect, and was borne by them 
into other parts of the country. Darkness was being 
scattered as by a visitation from on high. Xot only was 
the effect seen upon those who directly felt its power, 
but it was noticed in the great change of public senti- 
ment. The established idolatry was beginning to 
lose its hold upon the minds of the people, so that the 
branches of trade which depended upon their support 
were materially affected. A glorious tribute is paid 
to the labors of this apostle by the craftsmen, who 
complained that ^'not alone in Ephesus, but almost 
throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and 
turned away much people, saying that there be no 
gods which are made with hands.'" (Acts xix. 26.) 

After such a noble record, made by the sacred pen- 
man, of the great value of learning in upholding and 
diffusing the truth, let no man attempt to denounce 
these twin sisters, Religion and Learning. Above all 
things, let that man never be a minister of the ever- 
lasting gospel. 

There are texts which no minister can explain and 
enforce without at least a partial knowledge of the sciences. 
How can he rightly divide the word of truth and 
edify his hearers and receive the approbation of his 
G-od in discussing such texts as the following : ^' TVhich 
maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the cham- 
bers of the south." ''Seek him that maketh the 
seven stars and Orion." How can he adequately 



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223 



appreciate the psalmist's teaching, The heavens 
declare the glory of God. and the firmament showeth 
his handiwork,'"' if he be ignorant of the first principles 
of astronomical science ? T\^hen he has been instructed 
in botany, he can properly "consider the lilies of the 
field."' Havino; learned ffeoloo:v. he can better enforce 
the truth that ''in the bearinnino; God created the 
heavens and the earth,"' and utterly silence the cavils 
of infidelity, that would deprive us of a God and 
make our world a mighty maze and all without a 
plan."'" TVith a knowledge of the first piinciples of 
physiology, and the history of medical science, he can 
even make infidels bear testimony to the truth that 
^" God hath of one blood made all the nations of men 
to dwell upon the face of the earth."" How often have 
the words, If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he 
thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap 
coals of fire on his head,"' been cj_uoted to show how 
refined a feeling of revenge may be obtained by 
returning good for evil ! How forcible the reference 
when chemistry tells us that this is •• a beautiful 
metaphor taken from the observance of the ancient 
practice of smelting ores with carbonaceous fuel, and 
meaning to subdue the enemy by kindness as metals 
are melted and reduced by fire."' AVith a knowledge 
of the principles and laws governing the evaporation 
of fiuids, how scientifically correct the text, --All the 
rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto 
the place from whence the rivers come, thither 
they return again." If he has examined the science 
of meteorology, and made himself familiar with the 



224 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



laws by which the system of winds is governed, as far 
as they have been discovered by our ablest philoso- 
phers, how much better fitted to explain the text, 
" The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about 
unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the 
wind returneth again according to his circuits." 

When he speaks of the overthrow of Sodom and 
Gomorrah he has the testimony of an officer of our 
©wn navy (Lieutenant Lynch), who labored faithfully^ 
and succeeded in demonstrating the truthfulness of 
the scripture statement concerning the destruction of 
these cities. Layard has disentombed from Mneveh 
the strongest corroborations of its past history, and 
has found, upon the sculptured marble, testimony con- 
firming the account of the miracle said in the Scrip- 
tures to have been performed in the case of the Prophet 
Jonah. If he would learn the lessons he could learn 
and communicate the knowledge that is embodied in 
the prophecies of scripture and their fulfillment; if he 
should open up the vast treasures of information con- 
tained therein, and instruct the people so that they 
may be ready to give an answer for the faith that is 
in them, how extensive and how varied would be his 
acquirements. What lessons of G-od's care and pro- 
tection, as well as withering effects of his wrath, may 
be learned in the past and present history of the 
Jewish nation, of Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, 
Media, Egypt, Assyria, Idumea, Arabia, Tyre, Edom^ 
and the lives of Cyrus and Sennacherib, with the 
thousand other cases of prophecy mentioned in Holy 
Writ? Everything bearing upon the fulfillment of 



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these prophecies needs to be examined. The records 
of history must be searched, and the accounts of intel- 
ligent travelers who have visited these renowned lands 
of the East, and who have been compelled, often 
unwillingly, to bear testimony to the truth of scripture 
history, must be studied. Productions throwing 
light upon the present condition of nations, the reve- 
lations of a Rawlinson or a Layard , the discoveries 
of our most indefatigable pioneers, the records of 
monuments illustrating scripture scenes and substan- 
tiating scripture assertions, all form a part of the 
minister's furniture, if he would show himself a work- 
man of God. 

An interesting example, showing the great value of 
a knowledge of sacred and profane history in under- 
standing many passages of revelation, and thus indi- 
rectly confirming the truth of Holy Writ, is found in 
the thirty-ninth chapter and first verse of Isaiah. ''At 
that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king 
of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah," 
&c. In regard to this statement of the prophet, no 
little difficulty has been felt by commentators ; and it 
is only lately that the difficulty has been removed, 
and in such a way as to furnish a striking demonstra- 
tion of the minute accuracy of the sacred narrative. 

The difficulty arose, first, because this king of Baby- 
lon is nowhere mentioned in sacred history ; second, 
the kingdom of Assyria was yet flourishing, and 
Babylon was one of its dependencies. (II. Kings xvii. 
24; II. Chron. xxxiii. 11). These examples prove 
that at the time of Hezekiah, Babylon was dependent 



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AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



on the Assyrian king. Who, then, was this Merodach- 
baladan, king of Babylon ? If he was simply governor 
of the city, how could he send an embassy to the Jew- 
ish sovereign, then at war with his lord? Until lately, 
scripture interpreters could give no satisfactory reply. 

" In this darkness of doubt," says Dr. Wiseman, 
"we must have continued, and the apparent contradic- 
tion of this text to other passages w^ould have re- 
mained inexplicable, had not the progress of modern 
oriental study brought to light a document of most 
remarkable antiquity. This is nothing less than a 
fragment of Berosus, preserved in the chronicle of 
Eusebius. This interesting fragment informs us that 
after Sennacherib's brother had governed Babylon, as 
Assyrian viceroy, Acisses unjustly possessed himself 
of the supreme command. After thirty days he was 
murdered by Merodach-baladan, who usurped the 
sovereignty for six months, when he was in turn 
killed, and was succeeded by Elibus. But after three 
years, Sennacherib collected an army, gave the usurper 
battle, conquered, and took him prisoner. Having 
once more reduced Babylon to his obedience, he left 
his son Assordan, the Esorhadden of scripture, as 
governor of the city." (Sci. ^ Bev. p. 869.) 

No man can have a proper conception of himself^ of 
God, or of the great theme of redemption, and of course 
can not teach others, unless he be a man of knowledge. 
The ignorant man looks upon the heavens above him 
with "a brute unconscious gaze," not thinking of any 
aim in their creation save his own pleasure and grati- 
fication. The man of science, with the aid of the 



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227 



telescope, converts those twinkling orbs "that shine 
like diadems on the brow of night " into so many vast 
and majestic spheres, infinitely superior to onr little 
globe, perhaps peopled by millions of intelligent be- 
ings; observes with what regularity and precision 
they perform all their accustomed movements; ever 
moving, yet never conflicting; revolving side by side 
with their sister planets in love and harmony; subject 
to innumerable pertifrbations, yet never rebelling or 
spreading discord. What an idea must such a one 
have of the greatness, love, power, and wisdom of that 
Being who made all these things, and how fitted to 
sympathize with the psalmist in his outgushings, 
"Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God 
Almighty; in wisdom hast thou made them all?" 

"When he goes forth into the vast field of 1^^'ature, 
and attempts to explore her mysteries; observes the 
great law of gravitation, like the law of love in relig- 
ion, ever drawing and binding the parts together ; 
examines the means for the production and reproduc- 
tion of plants; beholds their growth, decay, and re-ap- 
pearance in other and varied forms ; is delighted with 
the gorgeous colors of the painted flower; sees the 
rich abundance that God has everywhere thrown 
around us, as well as the wise and beneficent laws for 
the expanding and controlling of the powers of created 
objects, — in all these things does he truly read of God. 

In the bowels of the rock-ribbed earth, he reads 
upon the stones the teachings of Deity. He sees the 
vast population that inhabited the earth years before 
man ever set foot upon the soil. He learns lessons of 



228 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



power, of providence, of wisdom, recorded, as with 
pen of iron, upon- the flinty rock. He finds the stones 
of the field in league with the Bible, both teaching 
the same fact, — God, the Greater of the heavens and 
the earth. 

When he examines the mechanism of his own sys- 
tem ; the materials of its composition, and the part 
each organ is designed to perform ; the fine adaptation 
of means to ends which everywhere manifests itself; 
the wise and wonderful laws by which the limbs per- 
form their functions, and the nerves act their part; 
how the heart accomplishes its vast work of purifica- 
tion, collecting and distributing, as from one huge 
reservoir, the life-giving current through the whole 
system; the wonderful construction of the brain, and 
its office as the organ of the mind ; the mysterious 
process of growth and decay which is continually 
going on; the various ends to which this complicated 
machine may be applied, — when he examines all these 
relations, may he not, will he not exclaim with the 
psalmist, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made?" 

If he opens the page of history, reads the records of 
the past, and examines God's dealings with other 
nations, he w^ill see all things under the control of 
some superintending Tower, who is overruling and 
guiding the same. He will see nation after nation 
rebelling against God, going farther and farther away 
from his counsels, condemned to be destroyed by 
others, and these in "their turn destined, for similar 
reason, to meet the same fate. He will see other 
peoples who trust in God and obey his precepts, gifted 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



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with the light of truth while all around is immersed 
in a worse than Egyptian darkness. As long as they 
heeded the teaching of a divine Ruler, they were 
preserved from the power of internal faction and 
external foes, which had destroyed other nations. 
They grew up in wisdom and piety. Their rulers 
were men of integrity and uprightness. He will see 
wicked kings who were guilty of leading the people 
into idolatry, stricken from their thrones, and their 
thrones, and their mighty empires, which had terrified 
nations and astonished the world by their grandeur 
and magnificence, crushed to earth. Amid the din of 
battle, the rise and fall of empires, the crushing of 
kings, and the upbuilding of kingdoms, he sees the 
church preserved, and the gospel of the Redeemer still 
safe. If not in the temple of the crowned monarch, 
it is found in the dwelling of the humble servant of 
Jehovah. If he thus carefully studies the history of 
by-gone ages, will he not more fully understand the 
truth that "happy is that people whose God is the 
Lord?" 

Will not a man instructed in all these various 
departments of thought have grander conceptions of 
God, of man, of time and eternity, of heaven and hell, 
of life and death, of all those main pillars in the temple 
of Christianity, than he who has scarcely been beyond 
the limits of English grammar ? Will not the mind 
of a Thomas Dick, Chalmers, Robert Hall, Luther, 
Melancthon, or Jonathan Edwards, have nobler views 
of God, more enlarged ideas of Christianity, of God's 
infinity and goodness, than the man who has read the 



230 



AX EDUCATED MINISTRY 



word of God deprived of all these helps ? With their 
minds burdened with such views of the Deity, with 
all their powers strung to their highest tension, thor- 
oughly alive to the greatness and grandeur of the 
subjects with which they have to deal, the interests 
of time and eternity, of God and man pressing home 
upon their hearts, would they not be better fitted for 
the great work of teaching the people than deprived 
of such training ? 

Aptness to teach implies qualifications; and these 
demand extensive scientific attainments — at least more 
than an ordinary acquaintance with the vast domain 
of science. In keeping with this view, I quote the 
pertinent remarks of the late Dr. Alexander, of Prince- 
ton: "Indeed, to speak the truth, there is scarcely 
any science or branch of knowledge which may not be 
made subservient to theology. IN'atural history, chem- 
istry, and geology have sometimes been of important 
service in assisting the biblical student to solve diffi- 
culties contained in the Scriptures; or in enabling him 
to repel the assaults of adversaries which were made 
under cover of these sciences. A general acquaintance 
with the whole circle of science is of more consequence 
to the theologian than at first sight appears. 'Not to 
mention the intimate connection which exists between 
all parts of truth, in consequence of which important 
light may be collected from the remotest quarters, it 
may be observed that the state of learning in the world 
requires the advocates of the Bible to attend to many 
things which may not in themselves be absolutely 
necessary. He must be able to maintain his standing 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



231 



as a man of learoing. He must be able to converse 
on the various topics with other literary men, otherwise 
due respect will not be paid to him, and his sacred 
office may suffer contempt, in consequence of his 
appearing to be ignorant of what it is expected all 
learned men should be acquainted with." 

He must defend the truth. Every minister, like Paul, 
"is set for the defense of the gospel." He must be 
able not only " to exhort, but convince the gainsayers." 
The armies of infidelity have planted their batteries, 
and are ready and waiting to hurl their leveled artil- 
lery at the fortress of Christianity ; and woe be to that 
officer who is found wanting. Their sentinels are on 
the alert, and every avenue must be carefully guarded. 
We have nothing to fear unless we underrate the 
enemy, and allow ourselves to become the victims of 
a careless indifference. When wide awake to the 
contest, and knowing the strength of the enemy, the 
church has always sent forth her champions who have 
struck terror to the hearts of her foes, demolished 
their strongholds, and brought lasting honor to the 
cause of truth. We still find some who love darkness 
rather than light; whose whole aim is to weaken the 
strength of the Christian, throw doubt on the evi- 
dences of his faith, cut the cords that bind him to his 
God, banish true piety from the land, and make of 
this moral world a " waste, howling wilderness." The 
church has challenged her enemies to the contest, and 
her leaders, trusting in the sword of the Lord and of 
Gideon, have done battle for the truth, and have con- 
quered. From the days of Porphyry and Celsus unto 



232 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



the present, she has been able to withstand all oppo- 
sition. Science, falsely so called, has been arrayed 
against her, but true science has faithfully repelled 
the dart. In the early history of the church, when 
infidelity and error were running rampant, when 
Arianism, Socinianism, Sabellianism, iN'estorianismj 
and a thousand other errors had flooded the church, 
there were still some champions, who, as one mighty 
breast- work, planted themselves on the defensive, and 
rolled back the fearful tide of sin. On through every 
century, when there was danger, there were defenders. 

A Watson is always found to ilins: back into his 
teeth the ribaldry of a Tom Paine, or the falsehoods 
of a Voltaire. The sophisms of Hume have met more 
than their match in the logic of a Campbell. 
When the court was thronged with literary infidels^ 
when the minds of the learned were verging toward 
irreligion, when moral gloom appeared to have settled 
upon the land, then Bishop Butler arose, and with a 
logic unsurpassed since the days of the apostles, with 
the very weapons of his opponents, hurled blows upon 
them from which they have not yet recovered. Cud- 
worth, Boyle, Stillingfleet, Newton, Leslie, Clark, 
Leland, Warburton, Watson, Chalmers, Robert Hall, 
Edwards, Paley, with a host of others of later date, 
McCosh, Rodgers, Buchanan, Hengstenberg, Walker, 
Alexander, Hodge, Kirwan, and others of kindred 
reputation, are the names of which the church may 
justly feel proud ; names that the world will not will- 
ingly let die; names that are interwoven with the 
existence of tlie Christian church. 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 233 

Infidelity still reigns, and champions for the truth 
are wanted. Foes are at work without, attempting 
to destroy our holy Christianity. They have changed 
their tactics, but are as treacherous and warlike as 
ever. Having left the vantage, ground which meta- 
physics seemed to give them, they have planted them- 
selves on the domain of science, to be in their turn 
disloged from these fortifications, and driven from 
•every covert. Physiology in infidel hands is employed 
to disprove the unity of man. Geology is asked to 
tell a tale that shall contradict the Mosaic account of 
creation. Astronomy is bribed to testify that there 
has been no creation, but that the stars, with all the 
retinue of heaven, are but emanations from the great 
I AM. The records of Egypt and the sculptured tab- 
lets of ITineveh have been arrayed in battle against the 
•chronology of the Scriptures. IN'atural science has been 
made to contradict the truth of a creation from noth- 
ing, and has accounted for all things by the theory of 
spontaneous generation, effects being produced by 
bodies coming in contact, subject to certain conditions 
and restrictions. A personal God has been denied, 
and the beauty and grandeur everywhere around us, 
manifesting to the Christian some bountiful Benefac- 
tor, are but part and parcel of the universal God, the 
To Fan of the Greeks. A providence has been cast 
aside, and all things reduced to the control of natural 
laws, which are guided and controlled by nothing, 
and that these work out our happiness and misery. 
German rationalism, rather zV-rationalism, is busy, and 

would reduce everything to mere reason ; would strip 
16 



234 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



the Bible of its divinity, and give us no more, if in- 
deed as much, than the bald skeleton of truth. Every- 
where we see the opponents of truth planting them- 
selves for another attack. From the citadel of natural 
science they hope to cast their engines of destruction. 
Skillful in maneuvering, they must be met by men 
qualified to dislogde them from their position. You, 
and I and others must see to it that the cause ot our 
Master receives no injury. How shall we accomplish 
this Herculean task unless prepared to give battle with 
their own weapons? To do this successfully the 
weapons they brandish must be made the subject of 
special study. 

The vigorous words of the lamented Hugh Miller 
are pertinent^to this subject. Speaking of the study 
of the sciences he says, " Judging from the prepara- 
tions made in their colleges and halls, men do not now 
seem sufiicientlj^ aware — though the low thunder of 
every railway, and the snort of every steam-engine, 
and the whistle of the wind among the wires of every 
electric telegraph seem to publish the fact, — that it is 
in the department of physics, not metaphysics, that 
the greater minds of the age are engaged ; that the 
Lockes, Humes, Kants, Berkeleys, Dugald Stewarts, 
and Thomas Browns belong to the past ; and that the 
philosophers of the present time, tall enough to be 
seen all the^world over, are the Humboldts, the Aragos, 
the Agassizes, the'Liebigs, the Owens, the Herchels, 
the Bucklands, and^the Brewsters. The Cuviers, the 
Huttons, the Cavendishes, and the Watts, with their 
successors, the practical philosophers of the present 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



235 



age, men whose achievements in physical science we 
find marked on the surface of the country in characters 
which might be read from the moon, are not adequately 
represented (in our colleges). It would perhaps be 
more correct to say that they are not Represented at 
all, and the clergy as a class suffer themselves to lin- 
ger far in the rear of an intelligent laity, a full age 
behind the requirements of the time. Let them not 
shut their eyes to the danger which is obviously com- 
ing. The battle of the evidences will have as certainly 
to be fought on the field of 'physical science, as it was 
contested in the last age on that of metaphysics." 

Our land is flooded with infidelity aud infidel publi- 
cations. The church must meet them and crush them. 
Hitherto she has proved herself to be more than a 
match for all her opponents. Shall she still retain 
that superiority, and show that she is equal to the 
contest, or sluggishly sit down ^'hile the enemy sows 
tares within her borders? The answer rests with you 
and with me. To whom shall the church, in her ex- 
tremity, look for leaders if not to her ministers? And 
woe be to the church when she sends forth ignorant 
and untutored men to give battle to the powers of 
scientific infidelity. A Ball's Bluff or Manassas shall 
be the fate of the church when to unskilful hands she 
commits her destiny in the hour of trial. Difficulties 
in science and philosophy must be met. Scripture 
must be reconciled with science; passages of Holy 
Writ, with each other. By sound argument the church 
must meet and vanquish all opposition; must make 
the Bible, and reason, and revelation teach the same 



236 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



doctrine; must build arouud her possessions fortifica- 
tions which the weapons of skepticism shall not be able 
to harm. 

What saith the Scriptures ? After all, these must be 
our guide. I have already referred to the example of 
the apostles, as affording no argument in favor of an 
ignorant ministry. I have shown that in the Jewish 
dispensation learned men were set apart for the service 
of the sanctuary. When God communed with men? 
he did so through intelligent mediums. He did not 
change that policy when the Christian dispensation 
was inaugurated. Almost the last message communi- 
cated by the great apostle to Timothy was, " The things 
which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, 
the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be 
able to instruct others also." How shall they teach 
unless qualified, and how qualify themselves unless by 
diligent, patient study ? The same apostle writing to 
Titus, a youthful minister, exhorted him to hold fast 
the faithful word as he had been taught," — by Paul 
himself, and not by inspiration, — that he " may be able 
by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the 
gainsayers." How shall he do this without a knowl- 
edge of the objections of his opponents, and the best 
method of refuting them ? He also gives a reason for 
this: "For there are many unruly and vain talkers 
and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision • 
whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole 
houses, teaching things which they ought not." It is 
the business of the minister to stop their mouths. And 
how shall he accomplish this work if his talk be as 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



237 



vain as their own? " But speak thou the things which 
become sound doctrine." How can he do this unless 
he first ascertain what sound doctrine demands? "l^ot 
giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of 
men that turn from the truth." He must know what 
these are, so as to warn his flock against their evil 
tendency. "In doctrine showing uncorruptness, grav- 
ity, sincerity, soundness of speech, that can not be 
condemned." Can an ignorant man exhibit the 
soundness that the apostle demands? "Let no man 
despise thee." So preach and conduct yourself that 
no injury shall result to the cause of your Master from 
your teaching or your conduct. Paul informs Tim- 
othy of some who desired to be teachers of the law^ 
understanding neither what they say, nor whereof 
they affirm," and exhorts him to teach the law in all 
its purity, and not as others have done. He makes 
known to him the requisite qualifications ; that he 
should not be a novice, but instructed in his work. 
Prophecies had been foretold to the intent that in the 
last days many should depart from the faith, and 
should teach false doctrines. He is authorized to put 
his brethren in remembrance of these things, and for 
so doing would be commended. But how teach his 
members if he understood them not himself ? In order 
to do this he is commanded, "Till I come, give atten- 
tion to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Keglect 
not the gift that is in thee. Meditate on these things ; 
give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may 
appear unto all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the 
doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this, thou 



238 



AX EDUCATED MINISTRY 



slialt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." If 
we must but open our mouths and the Spirit will fill 
them, as some wiseacres attempt to teach, why was 
Paul guilty of the consummate blunder of recommend- 
ins: readino: and meditation to the youthful Timothy? 

Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding 
profane and vain babblings, and oppositions to science, 
falsely so called." The way to do this was first to as- 
certain the nature of those scientific contradictions, if 
there were any. ''Hold fast to the form of sound 
words which thou hast heard of me." Study to show 
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
not to be ashame'd, rightly dividing the word of truth." 
Study the word and works of Deity. Qualify yourself 
for the arduous duties awaiting you, so that the church 
shall not be ashamed of your ministrations; and do 
all this that you may rightly divide and enforce the 
word of truth. Could stronger language be employed? 
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may 
be thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The 
nainister, therefore, must be mighty in the Scriptures 
before he is properly fitted for his business. " When 
thou comest, bring with thee the books, and especially 
the parchments." Paul, with all his knowledge, found 
it necessary to consult books, and may even have had 
his written sermons. "I am set for the defense of the 
gospel." How defend it when you have no knowledge 
of the enemy, and are not qualified to repel his as- 
saults? Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



239 



to the saints." Shall we not accomplish more if we 
go forth with a quiver lull of arrows, than if we 
attempt to cope single-handed? Paul boasted that he 
had not "shunned to declare unto them the whole 
counsel of God." Can a man do this when he is 
almost totally ignorant of a part of that counsel? 
*'And he gave pastors and teachers, for the perfecting 
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for edify- 
ing the body of Christ." How can a minister instruct 
and edify his people unless his knowledge be superior 
to theirs ; and how can this be, in this enlightened 
age of the world, unless he be an intelligent man? 
"Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom 
of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, 
who bringeth forth out of his treasures things new 
and old." But how can he do this if there be nothing 
in his treasury save the old, and that in homeopathic 
doses? We are told that "Ezra caused the people to 
understand the reading." So must the minister. And 
how can he unless he first understand it himself? The 
Scriptures everywhere approve, yea, demand an intel- 
ligent ministry. The greatest wonder is, how any 
man who had carefully read them should conclude 
that God chose ignorant and illiterate men as the 
embassadors of his kingdom. 

The fathers understood Christ as demanding an 
educated ministry, and for this purpose seminaries 
were established for the instruction of students in 
theology. At a very early period there was a semi- 
nary of high reputation in the city of Alexandria, in 
which candidates for the ministry were trained up 



240 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



together under the ablest instructors; seminaries in 
which men as Panteenus, Clemens, Alexandrinus, and 
Origen taught with eminent success. Eusebius and 
Jerome tell us that this seminary had existed and 
enjoyed a succession of able ministers from the time 
of Mark the evangelist. Polycarp, a disciple of John 
the apostle, we are told in ecclesiastical history, estab- 
lished a seminary at Smyrna. John himself founded 
one at Ephesus. Writers on Christian antiquities 
teach us that at a very early period seminaries of a 
similar kind were found at Rome, C^sarea, Antioch, 
and other places, all of which accomplished a good 
work, and were thought essential to the honor and 
prosperity of the church. 

Of course this action in the direction of learning 
met with some opposition. Says the historian Mos- 
heim, "It must not be supposed that the Christian 
church was full of literary, wise, and scientific men : 
for there was no law as yet to prevent the ignorant 
and illiterate from entering the sacred office. And it 
appears from explicit testimony that many of both 
the bishops and presbyters were entirely destitute of 
science and learning. Besides, the party was both 
numerous and powerful, who considered learning as 
injurious, and even destructive to true piety." The 
existence of such schools shows how the leading minds 
of the age felt the necessity of an able ministry. Had 
such a ministry continued, the church would never 
have sunk to the depths of wretchedness which she 
experienced during the darkness of the middle ages. 

Even at that early day, immediately after the estab- 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



241 



lishment of Christianity, the presence of the Holy 
Spirit did not supersede the necessity of extensive 
knowledge and thorough training in the embassador 
for Christ. jSTor does he do so now. " The gods help 
those who help themselves." 

What does history teach us of the mutual relation 
existing between learning and Christianity ? The 
corruptions of Christianity, by which the simple 
apostolic ministry became a mediatory priesthood; 
and this priesthood built up into a mighty hierarchy ; 
repentance was perverted into penance, and God's 
free gift of pardon was changed into the absolution of 
the priest, sold for money; the simple and touching 
sacrifice of Christ into idolatrous mummeries; the 
whole system of corruption which finally culminated 
in the Catholic Church, — all these were not the result 
of learning, but of ignorance. They grew out of the 
enthusiasm of perhaps honest, yet ignorant and mis- 
guided men. They grew to maturity, and culminated 
in an age when an unreading laity was led and in- 
structed by an ignorant priesthood, who could not 
write their own sermons. With such a ministry, no 
wonder that a night of darkness settled upon the 
church. Like priest, like people. Christianity was 
lost sight of amid the darkness of a superstitious and 
ignorant age. But as soon as universities were founded 
marts of intellectual commerce sprung up, metropol- 
itan centers of discussion and inquiry were established. 
Then any man could have seen that a giant was born, 
an influence about to be exerted which would one day 
shake that mighty fabric and scatter its foolish dog- 



242 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



mas to the four winds. The schoolmen came upon 
the stage. In these medieval schools there was hewed 
and shaped together, with euiious cutting and carving* 
that system of scholastic theology of which much of 
the controversy of our day is but a reproduction. 
They did not elicit much truth that was valuable, but 
they sharpened their powers for the work before them. 
Thought was stimulated, and a yearning for unknown 
truth created, which might serve to introduce the era 
of intellectual light that soon came. 

As God from time to time raised up mighty cham- 
pions, who shot like bolts of livid lightning across the 
vast expanse of mental gloom, who were they, what 
were they, and where were they found? Who, in the 
fourteenth century, aroused all England with his manly 
eloquence and vindicated the Scriptures, in tones 
heard all over Europe? It was Wickliffe trained 
in Oxford College, and crowned with academic honors- 
In that university of Oxford he found a fit position 
and fit enginery for his attack upon the strongholds 
of superstition. In the next century^ who were the 
witnesses for Christ before whom pontiff and emperor 
trembled, and the Council of Constance condemned to 
the fiames? Go into their cells. Stand by the fires 
built for them in the meadow by the river-side. Listen 
to their testimony in prison and fiame. See their 
ashes mingled with the running waters! Who are 
they? Where were they trained? They are scholars 
— learned men. In the University of Prague they 
lifted up their voices for Christ; and from that uni- 
versity John Huss and his companion Jerome came to 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



243 



seal their testimony with their lives. Another cen- 
tury introduced the Reformation. Who accomplished 
that? "Doctor Martin Luther,'"' as the Germans call 
him, was a finished scholar. His name is insep- 
arable from the University of Wittenberg. The first 
o:un fired in that struo:o-le was the nail in 2^ of Luther's 
theses for discussion, according to the scholastic forms 
of debate. The reformers were the learned men of 
their day. The age of the Reformation was the re- 
vival of learning. Lock at history, and you will be 
■compelled to confess that learning produced the Ref- 
ormation. Why deny its power for good now? 

Says Professor Tylor, in his excellent little work on 
"Prayer for Colleges,'" "The reformers — those before 
the Reformation, as well as the reformers usually so- 
called — Wyckliffe, and Huss, and Reuchliu, and Eras- 
mus, Luther, and Melancthon, and Bucer, and Calvin, 
and Tyndale, and Bilney, and Latimer, and Knox 
were men trained in the universities, and thus pre- 
pared by the providence as well as the grace of God 
for the vrork which they were destined to accomplish. 
It was while they were students in the university that 
new light dawned upon their souls, and the Greek 
Testament, acconipanied in several instances by the 
Latin translation of Erasmus, was, to most of them, 
the source whence the new light shone. The larger 
part of them were afterward professors in the univer- 
sities, and from these fortresses of learning and in- 
fluence they hurled their missiles at the corruptions 
-of the papal church; from these centers of illumina- 
tion they scattered light over the dark nations. The 



244 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



universities of Prague and Wittenberg, of Basle and 
Lausanne, of Oxford and Cambridge, of Strasburg and 
St. Andrews, were the birth places of reformation.''^ 

I^ext came the conflict of Puritanism with hierarchy. 
Whence came Puritanism? Where armed for the 
struggle? By the Cam and the Isis it gathered 
strength to battle with the storm. These universities 
of learning yielded their fruit, which still remains for 
the healing of nations. ISText came the great Meth- 
odist awakening which stirred the English people^ 
and is still telling happily upon the destiny of the 
world. Where was Methodism born? In an Oxford 
college, where a little company of scholars who be- 
lieved that religion did not consist in dry formalities^ 
but in the soul's experience, were wont to meet. 
Wesley and Whitefield were there. There was found 
the power that was to shake Great Britain, and 
spread beyond the ocean. 

Samuel J. Mills, imbued with a zeal for God's cause, 
and burning with a desire for the conversion of the 
heathen world, collecting a few of his companions, 
went out into a lield near to Williams College to pray 
for those who sit in darkness. Ere they left the 
''haystack," around whose base they had assembled^ 
they pledged themselves not to rest until some move- 
ment should be set on foot that would carry the gos- 
pel beyond the sea. This college-student, with hi& 
associates, gave birth to the great American Mission- 
ary movement. The flame they kindled has been 
kept alive upon that and other altars. American 
missionaries have not only been learned men, but, 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



245 



with few exceptions, have consecrated themselves to 
the noble work while engaged in college-studies. 

Time will not allow me to accumulate references. 
History is full of them. They all show that when a 
great work is to be performed, when a mighty impetus 
is to be communicated to the sluggish movements of 
the church, a learned man is called into the field to 
accomplish the mission. The founder of the church 
with which most of us stand connected — I mean Wil- 
liam Otterbein — was a finished scholar, read in Latin, 
Greek, Hebrew, and divinity. Could I write the in- 
:tiuence of learning and learned men in furthering the 
interests of Christianity, and the untold good they 
have accomplished, I would simpl}^ write the history 
of the Christian church. On the other hand, when 
learning and religion have been separated, and made 
to travel their pathways alone; when religion has 
discarded the abundance of aid which science has 
been willing to grant, the clergy are illiterate and 
blind, the laity go astray, and error and superstition, 
like a dark pall, settle down upon the church. Let 
us read history to profit. 

This age emphatieally demands an educated ministry. 
In some respects it has no parallel. See the subtile 
infidelity which is everywhere prevalent, approach- 
ing us very often in the guise of truth ; containing, as 
did the Indian's story, two truths to one lie — truth so 
skillfully interwoven with falsehood as to deceive the 
very elect; infusing itself into every system and every 
creed; plying every means in its power for the accom- 
plishment of its nefarious designs. How is the man 



246 AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 

of God to meet this? How recognize and refute it 
when he does meet it? Xever before has such sub- 
tility been manifested, and never before have skillful 
men been in so great demand. Xow is the time 
spoken of by the prophet; now is the prediction 
verified, The time will come when they will not 
endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts they 
will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. 
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, 
and shall be turned unto fables.*' 

This age is independent in thought — is inquisitive. 
Mankind now, more than ever, refuse to be satisfied 
with an ipse dixit. Men have been priest-led. That 
time has passed, and the strings are broken. Xowthey 
want information, but desire to form their own con- 
clusions. The thunders of the inquisition no longer 
compel them to think as the church thinks. This 
spirit pervades all the departments of life, of litera- 
ture of morals. Fulsome bombast, high-sounding 
phrases, vehement declamation, huge sesquipedalio. 
verba will no longer avail. By the serious, religion 
is thought too important a matter to be trifled with : 
by the trifling, empty declamation is turned into fool- 
ishness. There is but one way to meet this spirit — 
qualify your teachers. 

This is a thinking age. Xever was man so wake- 
ful as now. He is not content to remain where his 
father was, but is ever seeking new truths: prying 
into new difiiculties. He is not satisfied with the 
surface, but must probe deeper. He is fiercely icono- 
clastic. There is nothing too holy, nothing too sacred 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



247 



to escape his scrutiny. Books and papers are every- 
where prevalent. All men read; and he who reads 
thinks. " Beware/' says an able iTew England writer^ 
"when God lets loose a thinker upon this planet. 
Then all things are at work. There is not a principle 
in science but its flank may be turned to-morrow^ 
There is not any literary reputation, not the so-called 
eternal names of fame, that may not be revised and 
condemned. The very hopes of man, the thoughts of 
his heart, the religion of nations, the manners and 
morals of mankind are all at the mercy of a new 
generalization." i^ever before were so many thinkers 
let loose. 

All these matters must be considered by the man 
who aspires to be a teacher in sacred things. To 
properly fill this position, the brightest qualifications 
are not too bright; the most brilliant talents none too 
brilliant; the most profound scholarship none too 
profound; the most varied powers none too quick or 
various. Such a man is properly qualified "to rightly 
divide the word of truth." 

Time passes, and I must be brief. The subject is 
inexhaustible. In its contemplation, thoughts crowd 
thick and fast upon the mind. I can not now speak 
of the great need of a scientific education to the mis- 
sionary, who is not only required to preach the gospel, 
]3ut often the civil and ecclesiastical interests of the 
people rest in his hands ; and he must devote a por- 
tion of his time to these if he would establish a per- 
manent church. He must be able to teach science as 
well as religion, because the religious systems of the 



248 



AN EDUCATED MINISTRY 



heathen are built upon a scientific foundation ; and if 
you destroy these pillars, the edifice must fall. " Thus 
the Hindoo religion can not stand without Hindoo 
astronomy and cosmogony. Science undermines the 
pillars of heathenism, and frightens its votaries from 
its tottering walls." I can barely refer to the fact that 
most of our colleges have been established by minis- 
ters ; that the larger portion of the professors are 
drawn from the ranks of the clergy; that they to a 
great extent form and control the educational senti- 
ment of a people, and hereby hold in their hands a 
mighty power for the accomplishment of good, which 
it were worse than madness to cast aside; that the 
people of this age are a reading people, and demand 
the proper books and periodicals ; that new books of 
theology are to be written ; newspapers are to be 
edited; tracts to be prepared for distribution among 
the people ; quarterly reviews to be conducted ; that 
facts in science and history are being made known, 
and must be applied to the elucidation of scripture- 
texts; that different passages must be examined in 
the light of present scientific attainments. Some 
must undertake the work; and who so likely to be 
called to the task as the students of our colleges? 
That the work of the minister is a laborious one, 
affording little time for study, and that his prepara- 
tion must be made before he enters upon the cares 
and duties of a pastor's life ; that ignorance usually 
weakens the minister's power for good, and is the 
source of incalculable evils, productive of all forms of 
error, as the history of the church will abundantly 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



249 



testify; that a pastor's influence, as a general rule, 
other things being equal, has always been in propor- 
tion to his learning, — all these would aftord interest- 
ing topics for discussion. 

I have omitted to answer several objections which 
are often urged against this position. I have done so 
because they did not seem to me very important. If 
the view I have presented be correct, there can be no 
insurmountable objections. 

It may appear to some of you that I have erected a 
high standard. No higher than the Bible and reason 
demand. Both alike ask that the minister of God be 
thoroughly furnished. While contending for such 
qualifications in the men who now enter the ministry, 
I do not mean to say that a man can do no good and 
should not preach unless he is a finished scholar. The 
church is full of men, who deprived of all the advant- 
ages which we enjoy, with but the rudiments of learn- 
ing, yet having a heart burning with a zeal for their 
fellow-men, have counted nothing dear to them that 
they might win souls to Christ. There may be before 
me to-night men who have nobly battled for the truth ; 
men, "the latchets of whose shoes I am unworthy to 
unloose men, who amid toils and dangers and 
afflictions have lived for Christ, and labored to bring 
their erring brethren back to the bosom of their 
father, God. Their labors have been blessed, and 
many are the stars that shall shine in their crowns of 
rejoicing. Far be it from me to detract one iota from 
the honor which they have richly deserved; for well 
do I know the mighty work they have accomplished, 
17 , 



250 



AX EDUCATED MIXISTRT 



and the labors they have put forth for the welfare of 
the church. Like the widow, they have given every- 
thing ; and that God who sees all things will reward 
them for their actions. But to you, young gentlemen, 
living in this age of the world when so much is de- 
manded of the ministry, if you neglect the means of 
improvement now afforded, if you weaken the influ- 
ence you could and should possess, and thereby injure 
the cause of your Master, and be instrumental in the 
destruction of your fellow-men, you will be deserving 
of blame, and the great God will not hold you guilt- 
less. Our fathers have almost finished their work. 
They will soon hear the message, Come up higher." 
Upon you and upon me rests the welfare of Zion. The 
eternal destinies of mankind are in our hands. Shall 
we shoulder the responsibility, and quit us like men, 
or shall we become foolish triflers in the great work? 
The character of the ministry and the consequent 
standing of the next age rest upon the young men 
who are now preparing to enter the sacred office. 
Away with the idea that God calls triflers into the 
church. That while a thorough qualification is neces- 
sary for the business pertaining to this life, the gros- 
sest ignorance will not exclude one from entering the 
office of the ministry I We icant a higher standard; 
want no man commissioned to preach the gospel who 
is totally unfitted for the work. I urge upon you to 
magnify the office, and fit yourselves for properly dis- 
charging all its duties. Study to show yourselves 
approved of God, workmen that need not be ashamed, 
rightly dividing the word of truth." 



THE WANT OF THE AGE. 



251 



Gentlemen, it may be that I address you for the 
last time. Indulge me a moment longer. I know 
not how many of you will go forth as embassadors for 
Christ. I know that thousands are wanted. "The 
harvest is indeed plenteous, but the laborers are few." 
From almost every land there is a call for the bread 
of life. India has opened wide her gates. Japan, 
long closed against them, now demands religious 
teachers. The sunny plains of Africa are ready for 
the white man. From every continent, from every 
island, from every nook and corner of the habitable 
earth comes the pleading cry, " Come over and help 
us." Dy YOU hear the cry ? Will you heed it? With- 
in the last few months our own "Barbary States" 
have been opened to men who are not afraid to preach 
a pure gospel. Never was there such a demand for an 
able ministry. Appreciate your position. Awake to 
the responsibilities resting upon you. Go forth to the 
contest thoroughly furnished," and then " quit your- 
selves like men." Go forth with a double portion of 
the Spirit's influence resting upon you. And whether 
called to labor in your native land, or summoned to 
preach the gospel beyond the sea ; whether you shall 
lead a quiet, peaceful life, or like the devoted mission- 
ary, be compelled to seal your testimony with your 
blood, I urge, I entreat, I emplore you, in the words 
of the lamented Tyng, Stand up for Jesus." When 
you have finished your work, and have been summoned 
higher, may it be written of each of you, 

"He fell like a martyr; He died at his post." 



V 



Bmoxcz tlje ®rue S>'bza of ^xfz. 

(Matt. 20; 28.) 



THE Master has been laboring in the regions of 
Perea, east of the Jordan. He starts on his last 
journey to the holy city, where he shall soon give his 
life a ransom for many. Pausing for a time in the 
wilderness of Ephraim, away from the din and bustle 
of life, he spent a short season with his own immedi- 
ate disciples, revealing unto them more fully than he 
had hitherto done the sorrow that awaited him. With 
what a leaden weight must these words have fallen 
upon their ears, especially if they comprehended their 
full import, " Behold, we go up to J erusalem ; and 
the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests 
and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to 
death, and shall deliver him to the gentiles to mock, 
and to scourge, and to crucify him." 

Under such circumstances, journeying with the 
Master on the way to crucifixion, with the prospect of 
soon losing his presence and help, there would seem 
to have been no .place for selfish ambition ; and yet 
in the midst of these solemn surroundings we find 
two of these disciples — one of them the disciple 
whom J esus loved, who might have had faith to be- 



254 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



lieve that he would not be forgotten; — asking thatthejr 
might have the chief places of honor in his kingdom. 
"And when the ten heard it they were moved with 
indignation against the two brothers," not because of 
the impropriety of the act, but because they partook 
of the same ambitious spirit. The Master replies to 
these two brethren, " Ye know not what ye ask." 
To the twelve he says, "The princes of the gentiles 
exercise dominion over them, and they that are great 
exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so 
with you: but whosoever will be great among you,, 
let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be 
chief among you, let him be your servant." In this 
you follow the example of the Son of man, who came 
not to be ministered unto, — not to seek high places in 
church or state, — but to minister to others and to 
serve those who need service, even to the extent of 
giving his life for them. 

There is an ambition for place which seeks to ac- 
complish its purpose irrespective of means. 

" How like a mountain devil in the heart 
Rules the untamed ambition." 

Through its instramentality the globe has been del- 
uged with gore, and the nations of the earth have 
bled at every vein. Regardless of God, and defying 
man, it drives on like a fierce whirlwind, scattering 
desolation and death in its pathway, consuming every- 
thing beautiful and lovely in its course, breaking 
down everything that opposes its own selfish ends, 
and leaving behind it a blackened desert or waste- 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



255 



howling wilderness. The pages of history have been 
blackened by its deeds. Surely, neither reason nor 
revelation can sanction such a course. The better 
judgments of humanity are all against it. The best 
interests of society are endanged by it. It would 
make the world a vast Ishmaelitish camp, where every- 
man would be arrayed against his neighbor. 

But is there no proper manifestation of this princi- 
ple of our nature ? We all desire to be great. It 
shows itself in the contests of the little child in its 
plays. It comes into view early in life, and reaches 
to old age. It is one of the most active principles 
of our nature. It leads to a higher development than 
we could otherwise have. Take away from the stu- 
dent the honor and respect which the world will in- 
voluntarily pay to his scholarship, and one of his 
chief incentives to activity is gone. Take away from 
the faithful physician or lawyer the pleasure which 
he expects to derive from the appreciation that others 
shall have of his services, and he partially fails in the 
struggle of life. Take away from any man his love 
of place, of honor, the good-will of his fellows, and 
you at once cripple him for all time. The man 
who cares not for the good opinion of his race is on 
the highway to ruin, and traveling at a fearful pace. 
The man who seeks not to be first will spend his time 
in the low vale of mediocrity, doing little for himself 
and less for his race. The men who in all professions 
and in all departments of life bless their race are those 
who, with hopeful tread, are pushing forward, seeking 
to become greatest in their business. Can a principle 



256 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



like this — which seems to be one of the inherent 
principles of our nature, which, capable of doing evil, 
is yet a source of great individual and national profit, 
and without which little can be accomplished — 
be wrong; and is it this which our Savior reproved 
and sought to check ? Are we to quietly fold our 
arms and hold on with no desire for renown in our 
business, not caring who does better or worse than 
we? As Christian men, do we honor our Master by 
remaining spiritual babes instead of seeking to be- 
come full-grown men. 

The trouble with these disciples — indeed, with man- 
kind from that time to this — is the false estimate 
which they put upon things. True greatness consists 
not in enjoying, but in doing; not in receiving, but 
in giving. The desire for power and for place is not 
improper, unless it is to be used for selfish purposes — 
unless we thereby seek to feed our own vanity. To 
seek these things in order to help humanity, because 
we will be in spheres whereby we can do more for the 
race, is eminently justifiable. It was this false con- 
ception of things which Christ, both by his example 
and his teaching, came to correct. The great man is 
not he who gathers about him an admiring crowd to 
cry aloud to him as did Herod's admirers, " It is the 
voice of a god and not of a man ;" not he who is 
willing to be the constant recipient of blessing from 
those inferior to him in social position ; not he who 
from his wealth, culture, or standing in society con- 
siders himself free from the obligations which he be- 
lieves rests upon others to help their neighbor; but 



SERVICE THE TKUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



257 



the man who is most devoted to others — who uses all 
lie has for their upbuilding, and gives both influence 
;and effort for their improvement. In other words, 
Christ's idea of a true life is a. life of service, and the 
greatest man is he ivho most serves his generation and 
Ms race. 

As a proof of the high estimate which God puts 
upon giving, or service rendered to others, we have 
his own example. We know but little of the condi- 
tions of God's existence or of the blessedness of that 
•existence, but so far as manifested to us he is a giver. 
His existence is associated with activity. To our con- 
<3eptions an inactive condition would be death. In 
accordance with this part of his nature he flung into 
being not only our own globe, but the innumerable 
worlds that circle in the heavens, assigning to each 
its boundaries, and creating and governing the laws 
which control their movements. There is nothing in 
the vast universe that he did not make and does not 
own. "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills." And whatever maybe 
the nature or relation of second causes, we must con- 
clude that his care and his energy daily upholds this 
stupendous machinery. The beauty of the rose, the 
music of the bird, the lowing of thekine, the murmur 
of the rill, the roar of old ocean, the music of the 
singing pines, the deep base of the mountain storm, 
all these are results of his active energy. And when 
all this beauty was made he then, out of the abun- 
dance of his love, created a being to inhabit this globe, 
gave him a material organism adapted to the universe 



258 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



about him, through which, and by means of which, 
he could take pleasure in gazing upon the myriads of 
enchanting scenes by which he is surrounded, and 
drink in the gushing melodies that daily fall upon 
his ear. In addition to this he endowed him with 
mental and moral powers, aoalagous to his own, by 
which he could enter into sympathy with his divine 
Creator, through which he could understand the wort 
done for him, and to some extent the overflowing 
love which prompted it. All these things were done^ 
the vast universe created, and this wonderful being 
to inhabit and enjoy it ; not because God was not all- 
sufficient in himself for his own well-being and en- 
joyment, not because he needed that which others 
would give to make him happy, but out of the 
prompting of his own pure nature, which nature 
found it more blessed to give than to receive. 

There is another kind of giving which is higher 
than this, because it includes the idea of sacrifice — a 
giving which costs us something, — carrying with it 
not only the idea of power, but implies heart. Per- 
haps we are unable to tell to what extent God can be 
affected by such giving, and yet there seems to be 
something more implied in this than in the other. 
We have an example in the gift of Jesus Christ,. 
"God so loved the world that he gave his only-begot- 
ten Son.'" "He that spared not his own Son, but de^ 
livered him up for us all."' This was done not with 
the hope of any return upon our part, which should 
be an equivalent to him or in any manner affect his 
happiness, but because the divine nature prompted 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



259 



that for us which we most of all needed, just as the 
same gracious nature will prompt a man to help those 
most needing his help, and in this activity itself will 
find his greatest happiness. 

If man be made in the image of Grod, we would 
expect him, like hi? Creator, to find his highest enjoy- 
ment in serving others rather than in receiving from 
them. 

Better to us than all speculative reasoning are the 
words and examples of the Great Teacher. He tells 
us " the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister." Elsewhere he says to these same 
ambitious disciples, " I am among you as he that serv- 
eth." How grand doe^; the apostle to the gentiled, 
who, if any one, had a right to exercise authority over 
his brethren, inculcate the same duty by the example 
of Christ. " Let nothing be done through strife or 
vaingiory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem 
others better than themselves." As much as to to say 
seek not your private ends alone, but let every man 
seek likewise his neighbor's good. "Let this mind be 
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in 
the form of God, thought it not robberj^ to be equal 
with God: but made himself of no reputation, and 
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
in the likeness of men: and beins: found in fashion as 
a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore [in 
view of this service upon his part,] God also hath 
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is 
above every name : that at the name of Jesus every 



260 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in 
earth, and things under the earth; and that every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
the glory of GTod the Father." 

It is not permitted us to enter into the counsels of 
the eternal Godhead, nor to comprehend the motives 
which prompted the gift of Jesus Christ save as they 
are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. The voice of 
inspiration says to us, " God so loved the world that he 
gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
Love for fallen humanity prompted the Father to give 
the Son ; love for the same stricken humanity induced 
the Son to accept the appointment ; and for that pur- 
pose he took upon him human form that he might 
save many. When he came to our earth he came as 
the Savior of sinners; and by Divine power, as fore- 
telling the work he should do, he was called "Jesus," 
for he should save his people from their sins. When 
the angelic visitor announced his appearing to the 
bewildered shepherds, he said, "I bring you good 
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For 
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, 
which is Christ the Lord." Ere the messenger had 
made the glad announcement the refrain was caught 
up by the heavenly choir, which in sweeter notes than 
ever came from mortal lips sung out, "Glory to God 
in the highest, on earth peace, good-will toward men." 

What else could have induced such a sacrifice? 
What but the love for helpless man such as God could 
manifest, secured for us the gift of his only-begotten 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 261 

Son? What but the overflowing of a heart full ot 
afiection for perishing humanity could have led him 
to the shameful cross. Did he seek honor? He had a 
greater glory with the Father than he could have had 
upon this earth; for here he was despised and rejected 
of men." He did not want kingly authority; for when 
his disciples and the multitude would have made him 
a king he conveyed himself away. Was he tempted 
by wealth? As a God, all the gold of Ophir and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills were his ; as a man; he 
had not where to lay his head. It could not have 
been ease or quiet; for no man perhaps ever led a 
more laborious life. What but a disposition to serve 
humanity could have prompted such a sacrifice? 
Truthfully says the psalmist, "For he shall deliver 
the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that 
hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and the needy, 
and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem 
their soul from deceit and violence : and precious shall 
their blood be in his sight." And how joyfully sings 
the poet: 

" Hail to the Lord's anointed, 

Great David's greater son ; 
Hail, in the time appointed 

His reign on earth begun. 
He comes to break oppression. 

To let the captive li-ee ; 
To take away transgression, 

And rule in equity. 
He comes with succor speedy 

To those who suffer wrong, 
To help the poor and needy, 

And let the weak be strong. 



262 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



To give them songs for sighing, 

Their darkness turn to light; 
Whose souls condemned and dying 

Were precious in his sight." 

Look at the manifestations of this Divine life as far 
as recorded; and from the cradle to the grave it was, 
if possible, more than literally fulfilled. His thoughts 
were not for himself, but for others. Their wants, 
their cares, their anxieties, their sorrows, press mosf 
heavily upon his heart. When divine energy is put 
forth it is to relieve them of weights that are pressing 
out their lives, and not to aid himself. • Says Matthew^ 
who was an eye-witness of many of his wonderful 
works, "Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in 
their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the 
kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all 
manner of disease among the people. And his fame 
went throughout all Syria : and they brought unto 
him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases 
and torments, and those which were possessed with 
devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had 
the palsy; and he healed them." (Matt, iv: 23.) When 
the centurian asks him for a favored servant he says, 
" Go thy way: and as thou hast believed, so be it done 
unto thee." When he comes unto the house of Peter 
and beholds his wife's mother sick, he touches her 
hand and the fever leaves her ; and the same day when, 
even was come they brought unto him many that were 
possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with 
his word and healed all that were sick, that it might 
be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet. 



BEETICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



263 



saying, " Himself took our infirmities and bore our 
weaknesses." Tired with the labor of the day and 
needing rest, he yet rebukes the winds and calms his 
terrified disciples. When he sees poor men wholly 
tinder the control of devils, he drives out the latter 
and rescues mankind from this bondage. He can dare 
to touch the leper when no other can; and his leprosy 
departs. As he looks upon the poor paralytic he says 
to him, ^' Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven 
thee." To the woman who had spent her all upon 
the physicians and was none the better, but rather the 
worse, he says, in all the kindness of his heart. 
Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made 
thee whole." He goes into the ruler's house where 
death had lately entered, and laid his hand upon an 
•only daughter. He took her by the hand, the maid 
arose, and the broken-hearted parents were made to 
rejoice. The blind appealed to him for help, and light 
broke in upon their sightless eyeballs. The dumb 
obeyed his voice, and their loosened tongues spoke. 
At times this love for sorrow-stricken, helpless hu- 
manity would voice itself in words. So much to be 
done, and but one to do it. ^'When he saw the multi- 
tudes, he was moved with compassion on them, be- 
cause they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep 
having no shepherd." When John's disciples came 
to learn more definitely as to his Messiahship, in that 
same hour he cured many of their infirmities and 
plagues, and unto many blind he gave sight." Then 
Jesus said to them, Go your way, and tell John what 
things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind 



264 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf 
hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is 
preached." When he comes to the pool at Bethesda 
and sees the poor cripple who for thirtj-eight long 
years had been waiting for the golden opportunity 
with tender heart he listens to the sad story of his 
misfortunes, and then says to him, Take up thy bed 
and walk." 

Even in the last and trying moments of his life 
when if ever it is justifiable to think of one's self and 
forget others, even then his affections and thoughts 
still went out to humanity. What depth of feeling^ 
what thoughtful tenderness is manifested in that last 
consolatory discourse given to his disciples in connec- 
tion with the institution of the Lord's-supper. l^ot 
only were their sad hearts comforted by the word then 
spoken, but how many others have grown strong in 
contemplating the truths then taught. He is ever 
mindful of their weaknesses, and saves them from 
burdens they can not bear. " I have yet many things 
to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now. How- 
when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide 
you into all truth." "These things have I spoken 
unto you, that ye might have peace." And then comes 
that intercessory prayer for those soon to be bereft 
disciples — a prayer unparalleled in all literature. " I 
pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the 
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the 
evil." His hour is come. He could command legions 
of angels, but he chooses to lay down his life for sin- 
ners. Peter cuts off the ear of the high-priest's serv- 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



265 



ant. The great Physician heals it for him and checks 
the aching pain. The same tempted Peter betrays his 
Master, and curses bitterly; but the Master does not 
forget Peter. The Sanhedrim asks him to accuse his 
disciples, but he answers nothing. In this hour of 
agony he made preparation for his mother, who looked 
upon her dying son without power to save him. On 
his way to the cross, when bewailed by those who de- 
sired but could not help him, he says, "Daughters of 
Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves 
and your children." Already he foresees the fearfu 
ruin which shall soon overtake the city, and thegriev. 
ous trials that its inhabitants should undergo. When 
upon the cross, apparently forsaken by God and man, 
he says to one asking help of him, "To-day thou shalt 
be with me in paradise." That heart, almost broken 
with an agony w^hich no human means have ever been 
able to fathom, forgetful of its own condition, anxious 
for the w^elfare of even its murderers, with uplifted eyes 
and intense longing, cries out, "Father, forgive them; 
they know not what they do " — a glorious ending of a 
glorious life spent for man. He gave not only time, 
care, anxiety, tears, suffering, and life, but he gave all. 
He gave himself for us — his whole life, a life of serv- 
ice, and for this reason a grand life. Find, if you can^ 
a grander life in all the pages of history. 

If we examine man's nature we will see indications 
of a special fitness for service, his Creator thereby 
showing that he designed him for such a life. Man ig 
a being of susceptibilities and powers. Through these 
or from these results most of his happiness. Through 



266 SERVICH THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 

the former he becomes the recipient of pleasant influ- 
ences. Himself the center, all outside things are 
measured by their agreement with his own nature. 
By means of these susceptibilities he is pleased with 
the beautiful landscape, the roar of the ocean, or mur- 
mur of the rill. The stars in their courses, the varied 
faces of nature, the music of the birds, the color of 
the flowers, the grove with its wealth of hues and 
shades, and the field with its abundance of grain, are 
the pleasures that come through the senses to intensify 
his enjoyment. He is so made that in all these sur- 
roundings pleasant impressions are carried to his in- 
ward nature, and he is gratified. There is nothing 
wrong in this, provided no crime be associated with it^ 
But there is enjoyment resulting from' activity in 
another direction. We are conscious of will. We 
have power to direct activities from us — outward. 
We are not made to be mere recipients, but givers ; 
and other things are only valuable as they can be 
transmitted into a divine energy whereby we may put 
forth a holier activity. In this we become like our 
Master who tells us, " My Father worketh hitherto, 
and I work." We are no longer mere pampered 
beasts deriving our happiness from the labors of oth- 
ers, we are creators ; we are adding by our activity 
to the world's wealth of knowledge culture or growth 
in morality. 

li we look at the world around us we will see that 
men naturally group themselves into these two classes. 
It was a favorite notion with our brethren of the 
Sowth that some were born to obey as others were to 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LITE. 



267 



command. Thej fondly supposed that it was the lot 
of the negro to toil and labor and sweat while it was 
theirs to enjoy. Society everywhere has such men. 
They never get beyond self. The sun rises and sets 
for them; the seasons run their daily rounds; the 
stars appear and disappear for their special beneiit. 
They are huge reservoirs to receive the cares and 
labors and toils of thousands. Occupied with them- 
selves they can give but little attention to others, save 
as these will add to their own self-gratification. If 
it should be asked of them sts it was of one of old, 
" where is thy brother ?" they would be speechless. 
Kor are these seekers of pleasure, these feeders of the 
susceptibilities wicked above all men. This desire is 
consistent with, yea is often associated with refine- 
ment of manners, richness of culture, and abundance 
of means. Give these persons the desire of their 
hearts and they enjoy a more than Mohammedan 
paradise. Deprive them of this and they are malig- 
nant, bitter, revengful. Life to them is made up 
almost entirely of sensations. Vice may exist under 
a pleasing exterior, and society appearing be<autiful to 
the eye may in fact be very corrupt. 

The other class find their highest enjoyment in a 
glorious activity. It is what they do and not what 
they receive that adds to their pleasure. It is the 
putting forth of energy and not the reception of favors 
that satisfies them. These are the world's workers, 
the world's benefactors who scatter sunshine and joy; 
who make the wilderness to bud and blossom as the 
rose; who are the pillars upon which society must 



268 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



rest; who while adding to their own enjoyment 
enhance the joy and peace of society. 

In addition to these susceptibilities and activities of 
our nature, man has affections and desires each of 
which operates in a field peculiarly its own. The 
affections have for their special objects persons. They 
are awakened and go forth in view of some worth or 
good, real or supposed in the person. They have in 
them no element of selfishness for having this they 
cease to be affection. They are entirely disinterested, 
flowing out from us and appropriating nothing. The 
desires on the other hand have special reference to 
things. They appropriate to themselves and give not 
to others. 

In the operation of these two parts of our nature, 
we find the same law, service and not enjoyment, what 
we do for others and not what we obtain for ourselves. 
Here as elsewhere must we subordinate the lower to 
the higher. We eat not for the pleasure there is in 
such an exercise but in order to nourish and sustain 
this body, so it may be of service to us in the activities 
of life. Just as truly were these desires made to aid 
the affections. If allowed to become supreme, as 
sometimes happens, they usurp authority and drive 
us headlong to ruin. Let a man pursue wealth ever 
so vigorously and as long as he does it with a view to 
aid him in his plans devised for the elevation of man, 
and his powers perform their normal work. As soon 
as this pursuit is made for purely selfish purposes, to. 
feed his vanity or to minister to his own appetites, 
the servant is no longer in proper subjection, but has 
become the master. 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



269 



This is the mistake which men are making every 
day; and to the extent they make it, to that extent are 
they failing of the great purpose of life. Experience 
and observation show us how strong these desires 
may become ; and unless properly guarded they become 
ultimate ends instead of means. Desire creates a 
world of its own in which it soon becomes ruler, and 
enslaving the higher powers its whole nature is in 
subjection. Look out upon men in the busy pursuits 
of life, and whatever may have been their motives in 
the beginning how soon they narrow downi to the ' 
object of the desire itself. The field of vision becomes 
circumscribed. The objects for which all of this was 
to be done have disappeared and the desire becomes 
the end. How else can we account for the crime and 
wretchedness all about us ? The millionaire may be 
has no special hostility against any, and yet were his 
heart not entirely occupied with this love of money, 
would not the cries and tears of widows and orphans 
whose means have selfishly been pressed from them 
pierce even his ear? How else could men stand behind 
their counters and day after day, in opposition to the 
teaching of the Bible, in despite of the opinion of their 
fellows, deal out that which steals away men's brains, 
maddens their intellects, wrecks their bodies, beggars 
their children, corrupts the nation, and sends them 
down to a drunkard's hell? They hear the cry of 
anguish, but the desire for gain is intense and their 
hearts under such influences have become as hard as 
adamant. 

The desire for admiration prevails in fashionable 



270 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



life. Dress is necessary for comfort^ but this is lost 
sight of ill the interest which we suppose it will excite 
in others. Beauty is not to be disregarded. God 
himself is a lover of the beautiful, and having given 
us the same taste has placed objects about us with 
which to gratify it. There is no piety in unblacked 
boots or unkempt hair. But when these things are 
thought of so as to feed our vanity, to obtain the 
congratulations of our neighbors; when that party 
has been the most interesting where we have been 
most admired and our clothes most noticed, we may 
well stop and consider whether the servant is not 
becoming master. 

The desire for power seeks to be supreme. There is 
nothing too sacred for its touch. The ties of home, 
of friends, and kindred melt like wax before its behests. 
'No fear of God or man can stay the steps of him who 
has entered upon such a career. With a giant's tread 
he moves forward to the realization of his hopes. He 
thinks and dreams of conquests and blood. The 
world is to him one vast battle-field, and he is seeking 
to crush all opposing forces. At times there may be 
something grand in the movements of such a man, and 
yet he as certainly fails of the purpose of life as he 
who sells his soul for wealth. 

These desires are not easily gratified. They con- 
stantly cry give. They grow stronger by that upon 
which they feed. When they reach the mountain- 
tops of their ambition they are disappointed, for these 
are all covered with snow and ice. * The man who 
accumulates one fortune wants another. He who 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



271 



reaches one mountain peak scans another in the dis- 
tance and at once prepares to stand upon it. These 
desires are exclusive in their nature, are hard, severe, 
and exacting. A character built upon them can not 
be productive of peace and harmony to a community. 

With the affections there is no such danger. In 
their exercise they find legitimate ends. They are 
Eot likely to be disappointed. They grow out of 
"worth or worthiness in the party toward whom they 
are manifested. If the worth be unusual the affections 
should and will be of much more strength; and the 
greater the affection the greater the happiness. Sot 
merely is the individual made happy through the 
affections, but society will reap the same results. They 
are the true bouds that bind men together, the only 
sure foundation for peace. 

If this be the law of our being, hoiv shall this service be 
rendered^ I can name but a few particulars. 

In the use of money. Xotwithstandiug manv per- 
sons decry riches and quote the Scriptures to prove 
that the love of money is the root of all vice, and that 
it shall be very hard for rich men to enter the king- 
dom of heaven, we are compelled to believe there 
is no wickedness in being rich. Indeed we go further 
and say the obligation rests upon some men to become 
rich, and it they do not do so they are culpable. If a 
Kaphael is bound to develop his artistic power for 
the good of his race, the man of business talents is 
just as responsible. Having power especially adapted 
for the accumulation of wealth, it is his business to 
accumulate. Money is needed to carry on all the 



272 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OP LIFE. 



affairs of life. Without it we should soon go back 
to barbarism. It digs our canals, builds our ships' 
runs our railroads, constructs our telegraphs, devel" 
ops our ^resources, cuts down our forests, builds our 
towns, erects our colleges, fashions our churches* 
supports our missionaries, writes our books, prints 
our newspapers — in short, is the great agent in all the 
utilities of life. If you have the ability to make 
money, make all you can. The world needs it. 
Humanity is in need of it. All our benevolent organ- 
izations sutier for lack of it. But remember in your 
getting that not a dollar of what you get is your own- 
You are simply the agent to disburse it. The owner 
has instructed you how to dispose of it. It is not to 
be squandered upon your own lusts, nor to feed your 
own vanity, but to be used for the good of mankind. 
I^one but a fool seriously asks the question, "Am I 
my brother's keeper." May you not use the money 
obtained by your own labor for your own purposes, 
just as the physician may use his knowledge of med- 
icine, the professor his knowledge of science, or the 
clergyman his knowledge of the Bible? As far as its 
use by you will better fit you for benefiting others, 
your children, your neighbor, your friend, mankind, 
so far you may use it. The man who says it is my 
own money, I made it and I can do with it as I please, 
either willfully lies or is an ignoramus. If men are 
needing money and we have it we must give it. If 
missionary, educational, or other benevolent interests 
are suffering and we have the power to help, then 
upon us rests the obligation. If not met we are cul- 
pable. 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



273 



We must look after the 'physical loants of others and 
to the extent of our ability relieve them. The power 
we have always with us. These may have been 
vicious in their lives, but this does not relieve us of 
obligation. If I see a man in the water and about to 
drown I must not stop to inquire whether he be a 
burglar or a clergyman before I help him out. The 
obligations of a common humanity require me to help, 
to the extent of my power, those who need it. Some 
through crimes of their own doing are now reduced 
to want; others through misfortunes they could not 
avoid are in the same sad condition. Nor have you 
done your duty when you have contributed to others 
w^ho will look after these poor unless that be all you 
can do. You have not as a rule met the obligation 
resting upon you, when you have paid your tax for 
the support of the county infirmary and turned the 
poor over to the tender mercies of the law. You owe 
it to yourself as well as to these to do more. You 
have lost the blessings which you should have received 
by coming in contact with them. Your heart would 
have been mellowed, your severity modified, your 
whole nature enriched by such conduct. Service 
•rendered to such persons is always acceptable, there- 
fore no reason why it should not be done. 

While my first duty is to those nearest me and 
whom I can most directly control, it is not limited to 
these. Some things can be best accomplished in an 
organized capacity. I am a member of community, 
and as such I am bound to help relieve the physical 
necessities of its members. If persons with conta- 



274 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



gious diseases are stalking through the streets, putting- 
in jeopardy the lives of others, I must look after 
them. If the poor are oppressed, if the orphans are 
neglected, if the helpless are uncared for, if vice pre- 
vail, if crime be rampant, if taxes are unnecessarily 
oppressive, if the drunkard reels through our street, 
endangering his own life and the property of com- 
munity, if he threatens the lives of his wife and chil- 
dren, if he squanders their resources and entails bur- 
dens upon others, if the gambler plies his trade in 
our midst and leads the young men into his fold,, 
fleecing them of their property and debasing their 
morals, if these, with other evils that I might name, 
occur, and if I have the power to control them and 
don't do it then am I to be blamed. The power of 
one citizen is always left me, and whatever more I 
have would be a matter of circumstances. Whatever 
I can do to promote the physical welfare and comfort 
of the citizens of the community in which I live, I 
am under obligations to do. But, inquires one, is it 
not the business of your town ofiicers to enforce the 
laws ? Legally, I answer it is. It is my business to 
see that they do it. If they fail, then I am responsi- 
ble to the extent of my power and opportunity. If I 
fail to vote for men for ofiice who will secure the peace 
and harmony of community, and through my neglect 
an incompetent man be elected, then I am just a& 
blaraable as I would have been had I voted for this 
man. It is simply a question as to whether I shall in 
a direct or indirect way accomplish the same bad re- 
sult. 



SEKVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 275 

We have a higher duty than this. We have dealt 
with the exterior, but have not yet reached the man. 
We must get at the inner man to reach his intellect- 
ual and moral nature. These give character to his 
whole being. If these are kept up to their proper 
tension they will give forth melodious music ; if out 
of tune they will produce a wretched discord. We 
can help men physically without their co-operation, 
yet most persons needing this kind of help are willing 
to receive it. But when we come into this higher 
sphere where men most need help, we find them most 
unwilling to receive it. We thrust ourselves into 
their inner lives, and we need to move cautiously. 
When we approach a man to help him intellectually 
we thereby imply his ignorance. He may be very ig- 
norant, but he is not often conscious of it. He knows 
but little; yet it is his knowledge, and to him very im- 
portant. It may be what his father knew, and he has 
inherited it, and has never added a single idea to the 
original stock ; but he is satisfied with it. His vision 
has been very much circumscribed. He has seen 
nothing but the bit of ground about his feet. If he 
could only be induced to ascend the mountains he 
would see vast, boundless fields stretching out before 
him as far as the eye could reach; but it would re- 
quire a Herculean task to get him there. When you 
seek to reach his moral nature the matter is even 
more difficult. He has been practicing vicious habits. 
These have been the result of choice. They take in 
the whole current of his tendencies, his affections, 
and his desires. Impulses in themselves have no 



276 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



moral character, but when choice comes in to act with 
them they take on a moral nature. To these persons 
there is no higher object beyond the mere gratification 
of the desire. The moral nature, when in this condi- 
tion, becomes fearfully enslaved. It is a bondage 
more dreadful than any other, and most to be dreaded 
because it is not always realized. A man apparently 
may be a man of tine intellectual powers, good social 
qualities, and yet may be held by his vicious passions 
w^ith chains as strong as adamant. They feel soft as 
silken threads, but it requires almost superhuman 
power to break them. Soon these moral powers which 
have thus been neglected become paralyzed. The 
moral light goes out in darkness; and with this shat- 
tered condition of humanity it is not to be wondered 
at that men glide on down the inclined plane to de- 
struction unless help shall come from some outside 
source. 

Such men most of all need help, yet are least 
thankful for it. This is among the highest services 
we can render men, and yet that which at the time 
they appreciate least. Whether desired or not, it is 
the business of those who have the requisite informa- 
tion to impart to those who have none ; of those who 
have moral force sufficient to help lift them from the 
depth of degradation into which they have willingly 
put themselves and place them upon a higher plane. 
It you seek to enter this field and save men here, you 
must expect to be called intruders, fanatics, and many 
other hard names. But if you can only hold on until 
the man is ''clothed and in his right mind," it will 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



277 



aftorcl a pleasure that will compensate for all your 
efforts. 

Men who will be reformers need not expect to be 
fully appreciated. Paul was very conscientious in his 
punishment of the Christians, even unto death ; and 
there are men who will conscientiously oppose any 
effort you may honestly make for their welfare, and 
think they are thereby doing G-od's service. The 
traveler, benumbed with cold and just entering upon 
the sleep that shall know no waking in this life, does 
not wish to be disturbed. When a few keen-sighted, 
earnest-hearted men saw the curse of slavery as the 
masses could not see it, wdien their eyes were so 
strengthened by divine help that they could see the 
future of this nation, and their hearts were moved to 
shout the alarm, how angry men became. At the risk 
of the nation's destruction they were willing to sleep 
on, and were grievously annoyed because these ear- 
nest men insisted upon saving them and the nation. 
How fearfully this influence had penetrated the body 
politic is seen in the desperate efforts that the nation 
made before it could cast out the unclean spirit ; yet 
to-day, after men's eyes are opened and their vision 
extended, none seem grander or more worthy of honor 
than these heroes of the anti slavery struggle. 

A similar conflict is upon us, and it will bring the 
same results. True-hearted patriots with a preter- 
natural wisdom are foreseeing the consequences that 
shall come upon this nation for its worship of the god 
Bacchus. 1^0 power in the nation to-day so corrupt- 
ing, so wide-reaching in its baneful influence as this. 



278 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



It is tlie Dead Sea in every neighborhood, withering 
the fairest vegetation, blasting the choicest forms of 
thought, and spreading desolation and death wherever 
it may be found. It kills the individual, and blights 
every prospect he may have in this life or the life to 
come. It wrecks his body, paralyzes his brain, and 
damns his soul; for no drunkard hath eternal life 
abiding in him. It controls our politics; it elects our 
legislators; it creates and kills senators; it manifests 
its presence in our laws; it makes and unmakes gov- 
ernors; it has even put its slimy hand upon our courts 
of justice, and our judges obey its nod. The worse 
than widowed wife, the more than orphaned children, 
yea, the poor, w^eak drunkard himself, all send up 
their cry for help; but your judges sleep and your 
courts are silent. It puts the dagger into the hand of 
the assassin, and bids him go forth in his murderous 
work; it puts the torch within reach of the incendiary, 
and sends him forth to spread dismay and desolation 
in his pathway; it builds your houses of ill-fame and 
fills them with victims; it fills your insane-asylums 
with inmates and your penitentiaries with criminals. 
There is not a precept in the decalogue it has not 
violated — not a crime it has not committed. Ishmal- 
like, its hand is upon the throat of every good citizen 
in the land, and every man's hand ought to be against 
it. And yet, because thoughtful men are crying out 
to put on the brakes and save the nation before it 
rushes upon the bridgeless river, because they are 
anxious to administer the antidote which shall destroy 
the poisonous effects and restore life to the body 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



279 



politic, men are pointing the finger of scorn at their 
eftorts. Politicians are in arms for fear it shall affect 
their party and thereby hinder their prospects for 
official position. Christian ministers dare not say a 
word in behalf of the wronged and outraged citizens, 
or men will think they are preaching politics. Some 
weak-minded but honest-meaning brethren are fearful 
that the agitation of the matter will do the temper- 
ance cause more harm than good. N^otwithstanding 
all these things some men are encouraged to go for- 
ward, and by God's help seek to save their brothers, 
their friends, and the nation from the maelstrom of 
death. When this great result shall be accomplished, 
— as it must be or this nation will perish, — then these 
deluded men who now do not want help will be the 
first to rejoice at their deliverance from bondage, and 
will peal forth the loudest notes of thanksgiving. It 
is only necessary to bide your time and patiently wait. 
The men who curse to-day will bless to-morrow. 

We can all serve humanity and thereby serve God 
in another respect. We can put before men examples 
worthy of their imitation. "And they brought forth 
the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and 
couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by 
might overshadow some of them." Our very shadows, 
the outward representation of our inner lives, must 
be made to bless men. We are creatures of imitation. 
We unconsciously influence others ; they as uncon- 
sciously imitate us. God setteth the solitary in fami- 
lies in order that by a judicious example and whole- 
80 me instruction the children shall be properly trained. 



280 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



Biographies become valuable to us because we are 
induced to put forth efiort to secure the traits of char- 
acter herein manifested. Great men exert a Avonder- 
ful power by the force of their example. The best 
book on the evidences of Christianity, and which is 
seen and read of all men, is a living Christian who 
keeps a conscience void of oflense toward God and 
man. This is Christianity in the concrete, and will 
do more toward counteracting the vices and infidelity 
of the world than any other human instrumentality. 
This influence we can not help. Every day of our 
lives men are made better or worse — not b}^ what we 
do, but by what we are. We draw them heavenward 
or push them lower. Travelers on the Alps connect 
themselves by a chain, so that if one makes a misstep 
others may check his fall. Sometimes the stepping 
of one takes all down to destruction. We are so 
linked together that our associates and our friends are 
affected by us. Our tones of voice, our expressions 
of countenance, our very walk is telling upon men's 
destiny. 

While we can not change the fact of our influence, 
we can determine its character. It is in my power to 
say whether men shall become good or evil from my 
example. Whatever I am will manifest itself. "Shine 
yeas lights in the world" is the command of the 
apostle to his Philippian converts. To' be lights to 
others we must have light ourselves. Only when we 
are fully developed men and women can we lead men 
as we should. We should be able to say, "follow me." 
How grandly did that man live who could truthfully 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



281 



say, "I would that thou wast not almost but alto- 
gether such as I am save these bonds." We may not 
be to blame if we can not reach men by our eflPorts, 
but we are to blame if we do not give them examples 
worthy of their imitation. In serving men here, we 
are blessing ourselves ; for any efiort needed to do 
good service to them makes us better ourselves. 

If this he the Divine jplaii then humanity should approve 
it. Look back over the past and inquire who are the 
men that in your hearts of hearts you most delight to 
honor. Who are the men that the world holds in 
greatest reverence to-day? l^ot the men who have 
constantly thought of self, whose all-absorbing pur- 
pose was their own glory or their own advancement; 
not the men whose only business in life was to make 
money. Not long since the grave closed over one of 
these money-kings. Important as he thought himself 
to be in the world's history, you and I have scarcely 
missed him. The poor orphan w^ith outstretched hand 
met no kindly greeting from him, and perhaps does not 
know that he is gone. The churches of ISTew York 
will not miss him; for although a member of one of 
them, he never allowed his membership to cost him 
much money. He believed in a free gospel. The 
colleges of the land owe him no great thanks for the 
services rendered them. The charities of the city 
have not been blessed by his contributions, and hence 
need not mourn his loss. His thousand clerks who 
saw no sympathy in his eye nor proffered help in his 
hand need care little for his absence. His marble 

palace still exists to show the world that he made 
19 



282 SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 

money. He could spend his Sabbaths in his counting 
room preparing advertisements for the morning papers 
when a whole city was suflering for the help that he 
could give. When he died, the grief at his funeral 
was a very decorous one. There were no broken 
hearts unless it was that of his lonely wife; no orphans' 
tears to bedew his grave. He lived and thought and 
dreamed of gold; and if he should reach that land of 
blessedness where the streets are paved with shining 
gold, he will from force of habit become so absorbed 
in its contemplation that he shall forget the great 
presence who is the light and glory of the city. On the 
magnificent marble w^hich wealth will rear to his 
memory we should find in letters so plain that he that 
runneth may read : 

"Failed to learn the great object of life." 

And every man w^ho makes wealth his sole business 
in life, wealth for his ow^n gratification deserves to 
die just such a death and to go down to his grave 

" Unwept, unhonored and unsung." 

A few years ago another man died, and from this 
nation went up an agony of grief. The very heavens 
seemed dark above us. How many would gladly 
have givAi their lives to save his. In the hearts of 
four millions of colored people is his memory enshrined 
to-day because he gave his all, his life, to them. As 
long as this united nation shall exist the memory of 
the sainted Lincoln will be green and fresh — not 
because he was president of a great nation, not 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



283 



because he lived for his own glory, not because he 
sought his own ease and comfort, but because he had 
risen to that grander idea of life, the giving of himself 
for others. 

"Whether on the tented field 
Or in the battle's van 
The fittest place for man to die 
Is where he dies for man. 

We appreciate the apostle to the gentiles not so 
much for his thorough and varied culture, although 
he stood above all the apostles in this respect ; not so 
much for his skill as a dialectician, although he is the 
master logician of the l!^ew Testament; but because he 
used all his varied powers of mind and heart for the 
good of humanity. Listen to him in that first council 
at Jerusalem as he pleads for his gentile brethren j 
observe him as in their behalf he withstands Peter 
face to face at Antioch because he was to be blamed. 
Follow him from Jerusalem to Antioch and in his 
journey to Tarsus, through defile and over mountains, 
in peril among robbers, carrying his life in his hands ; 
preaching, organizing, suftering himself and alt the 
same time cheering the saints at Derbe, Lystra, Ico- 
nium ; ofi:* among the untutored Galatians preaching 
the unsearchable riches of Christ and so endearing 
himself to them by his labors that they would have 
plucked out their eyes for him ; with his feet bound 
in stocks, and he in the inner prison, he sings until 
the midnight slumbers of prisoners are disturbed and 
the prison-doors fly open wide; he cheers and encour- 
ages the converted jailor; driven from Thessalonica 



284 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



and Berea by the machinations of his Jewish brethren 
he goes to the sea; traveling through the streets of 
Athens his spirit is stirred within him; and standing 
in the Areopagus presenting with all the power of a 
sanctified intellect to those acute and cultured Athe- 
nians, Jesus and the resurrection; laboring with his 
own hands at Corinth that the fickle Corinthians 
should have no excuse for neglecting the message he 
brought; disputing for two years in the school of 
Tyrannus and fighting with idols and idol-worship- 
pers a contest as ferocious as though done with wild 
beasts; a prisoner on the national highway to Rome; 
everywhere you see the one all absorbing idea — the 
service of his Master and the good of mankind con- 
trols. In this he finds his highest joy, his supreme 
delight. How often as describing his one purpose 
does he call himself a "slave of Jesus Christ," glory- 
ing in nothing save that he is accounted worthy to 
serve him. How completely this idea of service 
entered into his life, and what a grand success that 
idea secured for him. It were almost blasphemy to 
think of Paul's setting before him as an aim in life, as 
a thing suitable for one called of God as was he, any 
of the purposes for which men are content to work 
to-day. A. T. Stewart w^orking for the aggrandise- 
ment of self, and Paul for the giory of God — the 
two lives as far apart in dignity and grandeur as the 
poles of the earth. And so with all the truly great 
men of earth. Those of whom we delight to think, 
who have wrought themselves into the world's history, 
who cared not for fame and labored not for notoriety, 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 285 

are names so indelibly engraved upon the heart of 
mankind that no time will erase them. 

From this stand-point men are great in proportion 
as they serve. He that seeks to be chief among you 
can do so only by becoming your servant. To serve 
well is therefore an infinitely higher position than to 
rule. If you would reap a glorious reward, if you 
would possess that 

"Peace above all earthly dignities, 
A still and quiet conscience," 

You will not, like the ignorant multitude, inquire, 
Where can I make the most money ? Where shall I 
find a comfortable position with little to do and noth- 
ing to aonoy? When shall I be able to secure most 
readily a recognition of my powers ? None of these 
questions shall engage your attention, but where do 
men most need my labors? Where shall I do most 
effective service for my Master ? Where shall I find 
the best opening for doing good? Here am I, Lord; 
send me whithersoever thou wi\t. To the jungles of 
India, the forests of Brazil, the frigid IS'orth or the 
sunny South, to the pulpit or the counting-room, 
wherever the welfare of humanity can best be pro- 
moted, make me willing to go. 

This is the only hajpjpy life — the only one which can 
meet the approbation of your highest nature, 
man is as happy as he who does a good service to 
another. 

" The quality of mercy is not strained ; 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed. 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." 



286 



SERVICE THE TRUE IDEA OF LIFE. 



This is the normal condition of our powers, and only 
in this right action cometh true pleasure. Happiness 
is the result of a wise adjustment of ourselves to our 
surroundings. Others' joy brings pleasure to us. 
Their sadness induces us to work to relieve them. 
Our pleasure here and hereafter is linked with that of 
others. 

ISTor does this regard for others' welfare conflict with 
self-care. Indeed, in caring for others we are best 
caring for ourselves. The man who, almost frozen 
himself as he crossed the bleak moor, could yet stop 
and seek to rescue a brother, by this very exertion 
sent the electric currents throbbing more vigorously 
in his own veins, and thereby saved his own life. 
There is a deep and rich truth which we need to learn 
in that paradoxical teaching of Christ. He that will 
save his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life 
for my sake, the same shall save it. The man who is 
willing to give his life in service to humanity is always 
certain of the esteem of all good men, the approba- 
tion of his conscience, and the favor of God; and 
when these are combined no man can be unhappy. 
His career shall be a successful one. He is sure of 
earthly bliss here and never-ending happiness in the 
life to come. 



THEKE is no more important work than the one to 
which we are called. Like the minute coral which 
does its work quietly underneath the surface and is 
only seen in the results it produces, so much of our 
work is not seen of men. A body of educators once 
visited Hon. W. H. Seward while a member of Presi- 
dent Lincoln's cabinet, to express their sympathy with 
him and the other members of the cabinet in their 
arduous work. As they rose to leave he grasped 
them by the hand and said, in his most earnest man- 
ner, " Gentlemen, you must look after the heart of the 
nation while we take care of its body.'' The secre- 
tary divined the true nature of our work. We are 
after the springs of the individual and national life. 
As churchmen we could have been called to no more 
responsible position. Whatever controls the educa- 
tional influences of the church will in the main con- 
trol it. As lovers of the church and desiring to pro- 
mote a pure and intelligent Christianity, we have in 
our hands unnumbered resources to be wisely used 
and properly directed. Says Thomas Chase, president 
of Haverford College : 

"While I have often felt it a privilege to sit under 



288 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



the ministrations of men who had little pretension 
indeed to human learning, but had manifestly received 
abundance of spiritual gifts, every year that L live I 
am more and more convinced that sound mental train- 
ing and generous mental culture are most valuable 
auxiliaries to the work of the church ; that some of 
the greatest imperfections and misfortunes in our re- 
ligious body (Quakers) have sprung directly from the 
want of them, and that in our country and in our age 
particularly no religious body can make a deep im- 
pression upon the public mind unless a goodly number 
of its counselors and teachers are well furnished with 
intellectual culture as well as spiritual weapons. Ox- 
ford and Cambridge can not make a minister, but the 
learning they impart, if consecrated to the Master's 
service, will help the best minister the Master ever 
called." 

The subject of education is not a new one; and yet 
there is no one thing which is to-day engaging the 
brains and pens of the more advanced thinkers here 
and in foreign countries as is this. While very old, 
from its very nature it must be constantly new. A 
new generation comes upon the stage every few years, 
and this should begin its work with the accumulated 
wisdom of the past. Then, too, the changes and 
modifications which are constantly occurring in our 
social and political life make one or another of the 
phases of our educational problem prominent at par- 
ticular times. In illustration of the general statement 
above made, President Gilman, of Johns-Hopkins 
University, said in a public address a few weeks since: 



AND THE CHURCH. 



289 



"General Grant in one of hia last messages and 
President Hayes in his first message have brought 
this subject prominently before congress. The Brit- 
ish parliament, having instituted a new system of 
popular education, has taken up afresh the subject of 
universities, and appointed powerful commissions to 
revive their present organization. In France, radical 
changes have been made and new universities are 
springing up. Renovated Italy has recast completely 
her system of higher education. Recently periodical 
literature has been rich in suggestive articles, as by 
Bain on the ' Philosophy of Education,' by Jevons on 
^Cram,' by Morley on 'Popular Culture,' by Mark 
Patterson on ' Books and Reading,' by Stanley on the 
^Education of After Life,' and by many contributions 
to Hind on the study of philosophy in England and 
on the continent. In Germany Helmholtz has made 
^ fresh contribution to academic literature in a speech 
on 'Academic Freedom,' delivered at his inauguration 
as rector of the university of Berlin; and Yirchow 
has discussed in noteworthy pages his idea of academ- 
ic freedom. The pens of our own countrymen have 
been busily employed on cognate topics." 

The early Christians found education embedded in 
heathenism. As they could not consistently nor safely 
educate their children under these heathen influences, 
they were compelled to establish schools of their own 
where they could be instructed in the faith of their 
fathers. Hence Christian schools, supported by the 
<}ontributions of Christian people, grew up side by 
side with Christian churches. Mosheim is very 



290 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



explicit concerning the schools of the early church. 
"There is no doubt that the children of Christians 
were carefully trained up from their infancy and were 
early put to reading the sacred books and learning 
the principles of religion. For this purpose schools 
were everywhere erected from the beginning." It i& 
further said, "And this was required for the accom- 
plishment of their object of gradually abolishing pagan 
idolatry; for the old religion of the pagans derived 
its chief support from the learning of its advocates. 
If the Christian youth could lind no instructions of 
their own religion there was danger of their applying 
to the pagan teachers of philosophy and rhetoric to 
the injury of the true religion." 

When church and state finally became united, the 
state supported both the schools and the churches. 
Guizot informs us that " toward the end of the sixth 
centur}^ there were no longer any civil schools; eccle- 
siastical schools alone exist." Further on he says, 
"Until the commencement of the eleventh century the 
only schools were those attached to the monasteries 
and the cathedral churches; the only teachers of secu- 
lar as well as sacred learning were the Benedictine 
monks." When we reach the Reformation the school 
becomes a part of the church-establishment, under the 
control of the authority of the parish, and the higher 
education was brought under the ccntrol of a united 
church and state. 

When this country was settled and schools first 
began to be established the system of church and state 
schools prevailed. Our present common schools were 



AND THE CHURCH. 



291 



then parish schools, the clergyman of the parish 
supervising them, and often himself being the teacher. 
Academies and colleges were also controlled by the 
church. Most of their support came from private 
benefactions. Occasionally funds were voted by the 
municipal or state authorities, but these were simply 
the church-members in their aggregated form and 
not the vote of the general public, as we would under- 
stand it to-day. In 1631, in Massachusetts, it was 
"ordered and agreed that for time to come noe man 
shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politicke 
but such as are members of some of the churches 
within the lymits of the same." Says Dr. Dexter in 
his "Congregationalism," "ITone but church-mem- 
bers were citizens, so that town-meetings were just 
church -meetings in another form, and the general 
court but a delegated mass-meeting of the church." 
The historians of New England, referring to the town 
government, say, "The persons exercising ecclesias- 
tical functions were officers of the same communit}^ 
elected by the same constituents; for not only was 
there a church wherever there was a town, but the 
church was the nucleus about which the neighbor- 
hood constituting a town was gathered. Down to the 
present century, in most of the towns of Massachusetts, 
the proceedings and records of the municipality and 
of the religious congregation continued to be the 
same." During this time the church and the state 
were essentially the same. The state, as in Jewish 
times, was the church acting in a civil way. The 
state did not mean then what we mean by it now. 



292 



THE HiaHER EDUCATION 



As the special work of the state and church began 
to dawn upon men's minds they became more and 
more' separated, and the schools which had been 
supported in part by taxation were left under the 
care of the church which originally established them. 
As new institutions were organized, occasional help 
was given by the government, but there was no defi- 
nite plan of action. The common schools, which 
hitherto had been parish schools, laid aside the teach- 
ing of the catechism, but retained in most places the 
practice of reading the Scriptures and opening with 
prayer. The higher institutions, meantime, were left 
to voluntary contributions on the part of individuals 
or the churches establishing them. 

At present the elements of an education are fur- 
nished by instrumentalities appointed and controlled 
by the state, while the higher culture is now furnished, 
in the main, as it has been in the past, by voluntary 
contributions, and is controlled by religious men. Of 
late years it has been publicl}^ asserted that these 
institutions good enough in their places, as pioneers, 
have done their work and should now be supplanted 
by magnificent institutions controlled by the state and 
supported by public taxation. President White, of 
Cornell, in an address delivered before the -'American 
Educational Association," at Detroit, in August, 1874, 
advocated such a view with much zeal and ability. 
Others have been found to echo his words. It be- 
comes those of us who represent church-organizations 
to carefully inquire into this new education and see if 
the good of humanity demands that the old methods 



AND THE CHURCH. 



293 



of supporting colleges by voluntary contributions and 
controlling them by Christian men should be aban- 
doned and the higher education be given over to the 
tender mercies of the body politic. 

I propose to show that the higher education should 
hereafter, as hitherto, be supported by Christian be- 
nevolence and be controlled by Christian men ; that 
the state is not competent to furnish it, and, further- 
more, has no right to do it. 

It has been said, " The main provision for advanced 
education in the United States must be made by the 
people at large, acting through their national and 
state legislatures, to endow and maintain institutions 
for the higher instruction, fully equipped and free from 
sectarian control." In other words, the logic which 
will justify taxing the people for common schools 
will justify taxing for the support of higher educa- 
tion. Can this proposition be sustained ? What is 
the relation of the state to the question of education? 

The common school is supported by a tax upon all 
the citizens, upon the just plea that all are benefited. 
The education furnished, therefore, should be such as 
can be made available for the mass of our youth. If 
the support of these schools can be claimed as a neces- 
sity for the safety of the state, then it must provide 
for that kind and amount of education which that 
safety may require. The question is not whether 
more education would not be better for the citizens 
and therefore for the state, — for no one could be reck- 
less enough to deny it, — but whether the safety of 
the state would make it necessary to furnish it at the 



294 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



expense of the state. If this theory be true, then the 
culture necessary for the various professions would 
lie outside of its proper limits. The state would have 
no right to provide a liberal education for lawyers, 
physicians, or clergymen, nor has it any more right 
to provide for the training of farmers, for schools of 
engineering, or for instruction in painting and sculpt- 
ure. It is a question whether the state has a right 
to furnish a liberal education to officers of the army 
and navy. These can possibly be justifi.ed as profes- 
sional schools, necessary for the well-being of the 
nation ; but the general culture wdiich is the basis of 
the professional should begin elsewhere. High-schools 
and normal schools, far as necessary to the efficiency 
of common schools, are in keeping with this, and 
should be thus supported. 

It would be a great advantage to the state to have 
all its citizens religious; but that will not justify the 
state in employing pastors for the people nor in taxing 
its citizens for the founding and support of theologi- 
cal seminaries. Says President Eliot, of Harvard, 
"If the arguments advanced prove that government 
should control the higher education, with how much 
greater force do they apply to the conduct by the 
government of the religious education of the people. 
These are the main arguments for an established 
church. Religion is the supreme human interest; 
government is the supreme human organization ; 
therefore government ought to take care for religion, 
and a Christian government should maintain distinct- 
ively Christian religious institutions. This is not 



AXD THE CHURCH. 



295 



theory alone ; it is the practice of all Christendom, 
except in America and Switzerland. We believe not 
only our own people more religious than many nations 
which have established churches, but also that they 
are far more religious under their own voluntary sys- 
tem than they would be under any government estab- 
lishment of religion. Xow, if a beneficent Christian 
government may rightly leave the people to provide 
themselves with religious institutions, surely it may 
leave them to provide suitable universities for the 
education of their youth." 

The great profit which would accrue from the high- 
er education, if enjoyed by a larger or smaller portion 
of the citizens, would not justify the taxing of the 
masses for the purpose of erecting buildings and pay- 
ing faculties to furnish such instruction to a select 
few. The state has a right to exist ; and because it 
can be shown that the elements of morality and of 
knowledge are necessary, to the preservation of the 
life of the commonwealth, it "has a right to provide 
means for such training and compel the attendance of 
those who will be its future citizens. Because no 
such necessary connections can be shown to exist be- 
tween the life of the state and the higher culture, for 
none exists, it has no right to furnish it. Says Dr. 
"Woolsey, in his late work on " Political Science," 

How much education must be supplied by the 
state to the children within its borders? We answer 
that the children should be compelled to learn so 
much that they be able in after-life, by exercising 
themselves in what they learn, to receive knowledge 



296 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



through books, to communicate with others at a dis- 
tance by pen and paper, and to keep accounts. Be- 
yond this, which all ought to know and which ought 
to be essential for being admitted to the right of suf- 
frage, the state may not be obliged to go." 

What are the supposed advantages of a transfer of 
the higher education to the control of the state? It 
is alleged, in substance, that denominational colleges 
are very numerous, of necessity their resources must 
be limited, their professors overworked, their cabi- 
inets small, their endowments meager, and hence 
they can not furnish that eificient scholarship which 
the times demand and which other institutions can 
furnish. Furthermore, it is supposed that an institu- 
tion with a theological bias can not inculcate such a 
love of abstract truth as one fettered by no bonds and 
hindered by no restraints. 

It is too late in our national history to raise, with 
any degree of success, the cry of sectarianism against 
these collegee ; and the men who are most apt to do 
it forget, conveniently, that there is a sectarianism of 
infidelity as bitter and more persistent than any which 
can be found in our churches. But all observation 
and experience is against the assertion. A charge of 
of this kind made against the prominent religious in- 
stitutions of the land is simply false. How can a man 
who knows anything of the work done by Yale^ 
Princeton, Amherst, Dartmouth, and a score more of 
such colleges, pronounce them sectarian in the proper 
sense of that term or dare to assert that they are the 
opportunity for the upbuilding of a special sect ? 



AND THE CHURCH. 



297 



The founders, managers, and teachers have been re- 
liofious men, and their reliorious lives have influenced 
more or less the characters of the students. These 
institutions represent the highest culture of the age. 
Whatever of mental or moral worth is found in the 
nation to-day is for the most part a result of their 
labors. They have changed or enlarged their courses 
of study as the times seem to demand, and have thus 
kept abreast of the age. The men who have filled 
our pulpits, made our laws, governed our nation, and 
led our armies to victory came from the halls of these 
and similar institutions. Without their help our na- 
tion would never have seen the proud position it oc- 
cupies to-day. The new institutions which the state 
is founding are building, in the main, upon the same 
foundations as did these others. These colles^es have 
given us high scholarship and Christian morality, but 
have not sought to build up a narrow denomination- 
alism. They vie with each other in extending to all 
who come within their bounds the broadest liberality. 
Students who attend are expected to observe the obli- 
gations of morality, because their own good and the 
good of mankind demand it, but are left entirely free 
in their religious tendencies. 

The language oi Superintendent Ruffner, of Vir- 
ginia, can be most heartily indorsed by all who know 
anything of the influence of a Christian college : I 
am persuaded, after most careful examination, that 
the usefulness and popularity of a college are not 
necessarily diminished because it is controlled by a 

particular denominational influence. If properly 
20 



298 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



managed, this simply secures an earnest and peaceful 
religious influence over young men under circum- 
stances in which it is specially important that they 
should have it. While on the one hand the home 
teaching and influence in religious matters may be 
suflicient for children white going to school at home, 
and while on the other the mature young man who 
goes to the university may be trusted to keep himself 
under wholesome influences, the immature youth who 
goes from home before his habits have been firmly 
established needs to be placed under guarantied influ- 
ences of the most healthful sort; and there is nothing 
better than the homogeneous habits and spirit of a 
denominational college." 

The statement of Samuel Phillips, the honored 
founder of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 
is the sober thought of all prudent men. In arrang- 
ing for a course of study and discipline he says, 
"Above all, it is expected that the Master's attention 
to the disposition of the minds and morals of the 
youth under his charge will exceed every other care, 
well considering that though goodness without knowl- 
edge is weak and false, yet knowledge without good- 
ness is dangerous, and that both united form the 
noblest character and lay the surest foundation of 
usefulness to mankind." 

After all, would a centralization of our institutions 
be an unmixed good? The American college is an 
institution by itself. It was organized for a special 
purpose. That work, in the main, is to aftord the 
preparatory instruction necessary for professional life 



AND THE CHURCH. 



299 



and to afford it under such influences as shall be best 
for the moral and mental welfare of the young. It 
does not, like the European university, contemplate a 
fitness for professional life. Our plan of government, 
our social life, our everything, almost, is so different 
that we can not fashion our institutions of learning 
after a European model, except in so far as our cir- 
cumstances are similar. Indeed, this centralization 
spoken of may be a serious injury. It would seem 
that the best results of training are secured when the 
studehts are limited in number aod when there is a 
freedom of intercourse between teacher and pupil, 
which is not possible when the numbers are large. If 
these institutions are somewhat numerous, they reach 
a class of persons locally related to them and thus 
furnish education to scores and hundreds that would 
never refich a central institution. Dr. Taylor, of 
Wooster, president of the Ohio College Association, 
in a paper read before the last annual meeting of the 
association, speaks of the good results of these small- 
er institutions in Ohio as follows : 

"1. Each institution has exerted a wholesome and 
stimulating influence upon the whole region around 
it, awakening the spirit of higher education, bringing 
college studies to the vicinity of many who could not 
attend them, drawing into such communities cultured 
families and educating agencies, and scattering light 
and culture among all grades of society. 2. These 
institutions have likewise constantly stimulated edu- 
cation in common schools and largely aided in elevat- 
ing their standard. 3. The large number of Ohio 



300 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



men in public position who are not college-men are 
indirectly the fruits of this wide-spread college-sys- 
tem that has awakened the spirit of study and intel- 
lectual development among large numbers who never 
found opportunity to avail themselves of college-train- 
ing. 4. These institutions have likewise done much 
for eastern colleges by the spirit they have awakened 
in behalf of a college education." 

In the same line we may say it is not the chief busi- 
ness of the college to give attention to original inves- 
tigation. So far as time will allow, it is desirable. 
But a college may fail to do this and yet may do well 
its allotted work. Says President Oilman, The col- 
lege is not a place of professional or technical study — 
not a place where lawyers, doctors, preachers, engi- 
neers, army or navy officers, and teachers receive their 
special training. Schools for such purposes may exist 
in connection with colleges, but are not what we com- 
monly call colleges. But it is a place where a founda- 
tion, liberal and thorough, is laid for future study, and 
where the mind is well trained, according to the best 
experience of the world, in those habits and traits 
which are essential to intellectual success. It implies 
the constant care and watch of good teachers, who 
have properly a regard not so much for the advance- 
ment of science and the prosecution of research as for 
the mental, moral, and usually the religious training 
of the youth committed to them." 

As to the matter of resources. These are only a 
means, and not an end. The best work is not done 
by an institution having the greatest income. What 



AND THE CHURCH. 



301 



an alumnus said of his Alma Mater many years ago 
may truthfully be said of other institutions, "Her 
success consisted not in a long list of rents and divi- 
dends, but in the ability, attainments, energy, aspira- 
tions, and zeal of her instructors and students ; in 
their mutual goodness, respect, and courtesy; in the 
harmony with which they co-operated for the advance- 
ment ot the institution and the accomplishment of the 
great ends for which it had been founded ; in the 
strong sense of religious obligation that prevailed; 
and in the blessing of God resting upon all." "It 
may seem like a truism to assert that these are the 
most important species of wealth to any college, 
whether great or small, and that without these resources 
no institution can be a desirable place of study, what- 
ever other attractions it may offer." 

It is true that many of our Christian colleges have 
limited resources, and the professors do hard work for 
little pay. It is true that the most rigid economy 
must be practiced for many years. But experience has 
taught us that if these institutions are deserving they 
will reach the heart and the purse of the public. The 
doctrine which is now preached by some, namely, that 
institutions of moderate income should be destroyed, 
would have killed in their infancy all such institutions 
as Harvard, Yale, Williams, and Amherst. And is it 
true that institutions under state control have no diffi- 
culty in securing funds ? Do they have at their com- 
mand all the means they need ? Is it not as safe to 
trust to the Christian public as to the votes ot un- 
thinking men who can not read their ballots and have 



302 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



no desire to do so ? One of the institutions of this 
state has suspended for lack of funds. Another would 
most likely have done so had not a sister denomina- 
tion taken hold of it. Another is subject to the whims 
of the council of Cincinnati, and yet another to the 
votes of the legislature of Ohio. A president of 
Michigan University once said to a prominent educa- 
tor that "he was under the necessity of spending a 
large portion of each winter at the legislature for the 
purpose of preventing legislation interfering with its 
internal working, or in some way inimical to its inter- 
ests." The history of the institutions in our own 
state go to show that trusting to a fickle populace for 
support is not much more hopeful than trusting to the 
benevolence of Christian men connected with denomi- 
national colleges. 

Is it at all true that institutions not controlled by 
religious denominations and not officered by religious 
men will be more zealous for the truth, more willing 
to sacrifice their own prejudices, less biased by their 
surroundings than others? On the contrary, is it not 
true that the teachers of a Christian college, where 
the nature of conscience is taught and the obligations 
to obey are insisted upon, are more loyal to the truth, 
more anxious to be right, than any other class of 
teachers? All their instincts, their training, their 
honor, and their faithfulness to their convictions 
would lead them to it. Have they preferences for 
certain conclusions? Do irreligious men have none? 
Are they in danger of losing their places if certain 
views are not taught? It is true that President 



AND THE CHURCH. 



303 



Dwight, au excellent college-president, was ousted by 
old Massachusetts in an early day because he did not 
believe in infant baptism. But do all other men out- 
side of church-colleges have a perpetual lease of their 
chairs? 

An institution of learning was established in our 
own state a few years ago. It is reported that its 
trustees were selected from men representing a variety 
of opinions, and it proved to be as conglomerate a 
body as could well be wished. By resignations and 
otherwise the better moral element was driven out, 
and the Germans and infidels remained. At this 
writing a narrow-minded unbeliever is its rector. 
Only one Christian man remains in the faculty, and 
it is becoming so unpleasant for him that he must 
change his creed or resign. Are irreligious men 
usually so full of "sweetness and light" that they 
have no preferences, no fixed principles, — as willing 
that one view should prevail as another? Is it not 
well known that there is a skeptical bigotry, an odium 
scientijieum as bitter and severe as any ever found 
in the ranks of Christendom? Keligious men, no 
doubt, have often failed through ignorance or fear 
to give proper credit to scientific investigations; but 
scientific men, while forbidding unskilled theologians 
to invade their sacred precincts, have yet rushed reck- 
lessly into the garden of the Lord with an efiLrontery 
which might shame even the enemy of all good. 
Even President White himself saw there might be a 
narrowness and sectarian bigotry entirely outside of 
church-relations. In his report on the organization 



304 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



of Cornell he says, " It may seem strange that this 
should be alluded to, but in view of the fact that more 
than one American college has been ruined by such 
feuds and that many have been crippled; in view of 
the fact that the odium theologicum seems now outdone 
by hates between scientific cliques and dogmas ; that 
as a rule it is now impossible to receive an important 
opinion from one scientific man respecting another; 
and that these men in their jealousies and likenings 
are evidently awaiting some one with the spark of a 
Moliere to cover them before the country with ridicule 
and contempt, we do not think the Board is likely to 
give too much importance." 

We may go further and assert with President Por- 
ter that so far as observation and history have taught 
us, Christian geologists, chemists, philosophers, and 
historians have not loved scientific truth any the less 
purely or followed it any the less boldly or bravely 
than those who were not Christian, l^ov have they, 
where other things were equal, been a whic less dili- 
gent, earnest, or succsessful than those who have 
accepted none of the so-called theological dogmas or 
Christian traditions. We venture to afiirm that, 
where other things were equal, they have been in 
every respect better philosophers for being also theo- 
logians; more lucid and profound in their intellectual 
activities and achievements, and immeasurably more 
noble and generous in their tempers as teachers and 
writers and in the intercourse of science and of life." 

The general public is not competent to control the 
higher education. The proper management of our 



AND THE CHURCH. 



305 



higher iustitutions of learning demands men of good 
life, broad views, and generous culture. Funds are 
to be wisely invested, proper courses of study are to 
be determined, a competent faculty is to be employed; 
wise rules are to be adopted for its general manage- 
ment, so as to keep it abreast of the wants of the age. 
It must be able to conserve well the old and secure 
the good results of the new. If these vital instru- 
mentalities could be under the control of some respon- 
sible man, competent to do the work, and with none 
of the influences about him which tempt men to seek 
to tickle the public, he might secure good results. 
But it is a patent truth that what men do not under- 
stand they can not manage properly, even if well- 
disposed. Theoretically speaking, about the worst 
place you could put such interests would be into the 
hands of our ignorant voters. There could be noth- 
ing permanently planned for such institutions. Plans 
which have required patient toil and careful examina- 
tion have just been entered upon, and it will require 
years to develop the expected results. A single 
election mav send all such arrans^ements to the winds. 
If not done, it is more by accident than by good intent. 
Possibly it may have been prevented by the combined 
labors of the president and the faculty, which labors 
should have been given to the internal work of the 
institution. The people may have a pique at some 
one of the officers, and he becomes the foot-ball of 
party politics. An election may expunge the classics 
from the course of study. The next may replace 
them, only to drive out certain of the sciences. When 



306 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



you are dependent upon the tender mercies of Tom 
Lafterty or Timothy O'FIynn, whom a glass of whisky 
will turn one way or another, you never know what 
to expect. This interference may come in cutting ofl' 
your resources or reducing your teaching-force. 

Last winter a bill was before the Ohio legislature 
to destroy the high-schools. It may come up the 
present session. Ignorance and demagoguism may 
secure its passage, and thus the energies of these 
schools be crippled until such time as the people shall 
demand their restoration. If done once, another legis- 
lature may repeat the same thing. How easy to 
attack our Ohio State University, — formerly known 
as Ohio Agricultural College, — change its trustees, 
alter its course of study, reduce the wages, and drive 
out its best professors. This is not mere theory. The 
short history of such institutions in our own state 
shows how easily this can be done. If I am not mis- 
taken the history of Michigan University tells us that 
this institution, lirmly rooted as it is, at one time tot- 
tered on the very brink of ruin through the interfer- 
ence of the people. If our grangers should combine, 
they have it in their power to make our " state col- 
lege" so that it shall be a mere skeleton. Who can 
say they will not do it? There is scarcely a meeting 
of our legislature in which our benevolent institutions 
are not overhauled. Officers and managers, no mat- 
ter how faithfully they have served, are put aside to 
make room for party favorites to whom some one is 
under political obligations. We have a republican 
form of government which allows its citizens a voice 



AND THE CHURCH. 



307 



in matters of state. Our large cities, at a fearful cost, 
are learning what this means. Let some tornado of 
passion sweep over the land, let our people be seized 
by some wild idea like the silver-mania which pos- 
sessed them a year ago, and their impulses would run 
away with the little reason they possess. Put our 
higher education into the hands of such men, who, 
£rst of all, know not how to appreciate it, and, next, 
care nothing for it except to gratify some personal 
aims, and where will we be ? 

But are not religious corporations subject to the 
influences which move other men? True; but the 
men who founded these institutions know something 
about them. They are more competent to determine 
their wants and more anxious for their success. They 
are not infallible; they make mistakes; but their 
purposes are, in the main, good, and it is safer every 
way to intrust the management of such interests into 
their hands than into the hands of the general public. 

We are all creatures of imitation. We are influ- 
enced by others for our weal or woe. Outside of the 
family relation there is no relation fraught with such 
important results as that of the pupil and the teacher. 
Says Dean Stanley in "The Education of After Life," 
"When at Oxford, in my younger days, there were 
•discussions about reforms of the university. There was 
one want which we regarded as supremely felt, and 
this was the want of professors; that is to say, of 
i:eachers who might be as oracles whereat students 
might come in the several branches of knowledge. 
There is an advantage to any young man or woman 



308 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



in being brought into contact with higher intelligence, 
'No operation in the way of external impulse or stim- 
ulus or instruction in our passage through this 
mortal existence is equal to the impression produced 
upon us by the contact of intellects and characters 
superior to ourselves. Socrates left no school behind 
him. The philosophies which followed him were 
broken into a thousand sections. But the influences 
and stimulus which Socrates left never ceased, and 
have continued until the present hour." 

The period spent at college by young men and 
women is one of considerable peril. It would be so 
whether at college or not. It is the transition period 
from the trust and confidence of youth to the thought 
and reflection of manhood. This is the period when 
we are not satisfied to accept unchallenged the beliefs 
of early years, but begin to look about for a reason for 
our faith. If in our progress toward a reasonable 
faith there be a period of skepticism, through which 
most persons must pass, this is the period. The 
young man can no longer look through his father's 
eyes, but must see for himself. When once he begins 
to investigate we are not sure where he will end. 
With his eyes beclouded with darkness or , blinded by 
excessive light he may leave the way unless some 
friendly soul shall call to him from the safe and beaten 
pathway. Without this, doubt after doubt may come 
before him until he is not sure that he believes any- 
thing. For a person in such a way there is no place 
so good as a Christian college, with experienced men 
well-grounded in the faith to take him by the hand 



AND THE CHURCH. 



309 



and lead him out. In such a college he will find 
^' companions enough who can sympathize with him 
in his troubles and understand him. They do not 
brand him a heretic. They do not despair of his 
escape from this embarrassment. Many of them who 
are one stage further on in experience than he have 
been enveloped in the same shadows and have emerged 
victorious at last. They have patience to wait for him. 
They have the skill to combat his arguments. They 
have faith to pray for him. Then, too, in the faculty 
th-ere are sure to be some men who have had large 
opportunities for observing and studying the difficul- 
ties of students. Their counsel is at his service. His 
speculative troubles are not new to them. They can 
meet the dialectics with which his mind, groping and 
stumbling, is confusing itself. They can take him by 
the hand and help him from the slough into which 
his own efforts seemed to be sinking him deeper and 
deeper every day." 

In many of our state institutions serious objections 
are made to a clergyman's teaching unless he be a 
believer in Hindooism or Mohammedanism. Indeed, 
if a man be proficient in his department and be not 
grossly immoral, so as to offend the public taste, little 
attention is paid to his religious views. As a rule, 
the more heterodox the better. Of course such men 
must reveal their opinions. The pride of independent 
thinking, so called, will lead them to express their 
views; and if they did not seek to do so, these could 
not be concealed. Put young persons under such 
irreligious influences and their religious life will be 



310 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



seriously endangered. A sneer at the religious faith 
of their fathers will tend to turn their thoughts into 
the wrong channel. Just in proportion as these 
teachers are able in other departments and polite and 
courteous in their bearing will be the dangerous influ- 
ences they exert. Pupils will unconsciously drink in 
from such an atmosphere until their moral health is 
diseased and they can make light of that which at one 
time was as real as existence. 'No man who believes 
in the God of the Bible wants his children led astray 
into erroneous paths from which they can not easily 
turn aside and to pursue which is death. 

From the stand-point of society these men may be 
of good moral character, gentlemanly, and polite in 
social life. But their influence is against Christianity. 
When we come to examine their daily work, the 
lessons taught in the class-room, and the principles 
sought to be instilled into their pupils, the result is 
still more to be deplored. There are questions of 
vital importance coming up every day upon which 
there can be no neutrality. Omitting to say anything 
w^hen such wise counsel is needed is criminality. A 
man under state appointment and supervision, if hon- 
est, might feel that he could not justly say anything^ 
Most persons believe that God has revealed himself 
in the material world which we tind about us, in the 
laws that govern the human mind, and in our moral 
nature especially; also in the social laws which con- 
trol our being and lie at the foundation of society; 
also, in a written revelation designed to prepare man 
for the duties of this life and the enjoyments of the 



AND THE CHURCH. 



311 



great future. These methods are more or less related 
to each other. We can not properly understand one 
until we know something of each of the others. 
Hence all of them, to some extent, must enter into 
the higher education. We can not possibly ignore 
them and do the work allotted us. 

In our public schools, where only the elements of 
knowledge are given, children may be taught the 
facts without any serious difference of opinion arising; 
but when we come into the higher realms of educa- 
tion, and when we begin to inquire into the cause of 
things, we must concede an external world, a moral 
nature, a written revelation, or we must deny them. 
There is scarcely a study in the curriculum which 
will not evoke some of these questions ; and no such 
study can be properly taught without an attempt to 
answer them. The aim of Jesuitical instruction is to 
make the many submissive to the few. Those in 
authority are to think for the others. Hence the im- 
portance which is attached to their idea of discipline. 
Their courses of study are arranged, their methods of 
teaching are adopted, and their work is adjusted to 
this result. They, if any, could afford to ignore these 
higher relations of truth. Our Protestant system, 
which seeks to develop man's thinking-powers, and 
to make every person his own wise ruler, can not do 
so. We want to discover the truth for ourselves by 
seeing the relations of things. We want the reason 
for any particular result ; and such teaching will 
properly demand of him who teaches a theory of these 
relations and these causes. 



312 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



The teacher who instructs in physiology should not 
only teach the general facts of the science, but he 
should have some idea as to life and the laws that 
govern it; otherwise he can not properly co-ordinate 
these facts. The chemist should have some theorj^ of 
explanation for the wonderfnl manifestations of the 
unseen forces which this science produces. The 
geologist must have some opinion as to the origin of 
the earth, and the causes which gave it such an 
appearance. The astronomer must either believe 
that the worlds wdiich circle in the heavens above us 
are controlled by some wise ruler, infinite in power 
and majesty, or that they act in obedience to some 
blind law. The student of mind must ask himself 
whether the qualities of mind differ from those of 
matter; whether thought and bile are alike secretions 
of material organs. In morals, we must inquire 
whether there be anywhere an ultimate standard of 
right; and if so where shall w^e find it? Shall the 
student obey or not obey the teachings of conscience? 
Is there a power in history working out some great 
result over which we have no direct control, and 
which we can not prevent? Or are the events which 
happen all about us accidental occurrences, brought 
about by man's own nature for no great purpose, and 
productive of no permanent results? "If a man die, 
shall he live again ?" Or is he the creature of an hour, 
and then doomed to go out forever ? Is he responsible 
for his acts in this life? Or does some unseen power 
drive him whither he would not? 

These and similar questions are discussed in the 



AND THE CHURCH. 



313 



libraries about us. They must manifest themselves 
in college recitations. The manner in which they 
will be settled, so far as it is possible to settle them, 
will depend upon the conviction of him who teaches. 
If his own religious opinions are unsettled or vacillat- 
ing, or if a positive disbeliever, his pupils will set 
sail on the sea of skepticism. If he be a man of strong 
faith in God, who sees these relations from the stand- 
point of a Christian student, his pupils will be grounded 
in the facts of a science in harmony with the divine 
law. To place a student, in this formative condition 
of his nature, with his principles not yet established, 
under the guidance of one whose teaching as well as 
infiuence will be in opposition to the fundamental 
truths of Christianity and in favor of infidelity, is one 
of the most serious misfortunes which can happen to 
any young man. Then happy is he who escapes such 
a snare, and happy is the father who can foresee the 
danger and save his son from such peril. 

The most important thing to be aimed at in our 
college-culture, and which this nation especially needs, 
is the formation of a high-toned moral character; and 
this the state is not competent to furnish. Where it is 
wanting, what facts will warrant us in asserting that 
all intellectual culture tends to lift man up and make 
him more virtuous? So far as the more debasing 
kinds of crime are concerned, it is certain that some 
of our greatest criminals have been men of good lit- 
erary culture; men who were intellectually great, and 
at the same time were moral wrecks. Washington 

said to us, " Whatever may be conceded to the influ- 
21 



314 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



ence of refined education on minds of peculiar struct- 
ure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect 
national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious 
principles." Herbert Spencer, while not always a safe 
guide, certainly has the true idea when he asserts that 
education and good citizenship are not necessarily 
associated. He says, "Are not fraudulent bankrupts 
educated people? What imaginable connection is 
there between learning that certain clusters of marks 
on paper stand for certain words and getting a higher 
sense of duty? How does a knowledge of the multi- 
plication table, or quickness in adding or dividing, so 
increase the sympathies as to restrain the tendency to 
trespass against fellow-creatures? One who should 
by lessons in Latin hope to gain a knowledge of 
geometry, or one who should expect practice in draw- 
ing to be followed by an expi'essive rendering of a 
sonata, would be thought fit for an asylum ; and yet he 
would be scarcely more unnatural than those who by 
discipline of the intellectual faculties expect to pro- 
duce better feeling." 

In the past the agencies and appliances of Christian 
colleges have stood in the front rank of all the influ- 
ences which advance morality. Our public schools, 
while doing good service to the state, — so good they 
could not be dispensed with, — have not been able to 
meet the nation's w^ant. We not only need to hold 
on to all those appliances which we have that will 
make the conscience more sensitive, and hold men 
up to the great law of duty, but we need to ci^eate 
others. With a keen sense of right and wrong, and 



AND THE CHURCH. 



315 



the moral duty to abide by our promises in individual 
life, we would not have been made to blush at the 
breach of public faith that has been manifested in our 
national congress during the last winter. The lack 
of education, and especially of high moral culture, 
makes at least one branch of this bod}' but little better 
than a respectable mob, whose sole purpose seems to 
be personal aggrandizement, irrespective of plighted 
faith or national safety. Legislation will not remedy 
all of our troubles ; for the mass of voters are no bet- 
ter than our legislators, — otherwise. Christian clergy- 
men and Christian citizens would see the impropriety 
of straining all their powers to send whisky-sellers 
and whisky-drinkers to congress, and to place intem- 
perate men in the highest positions in state or nation. 
The great want of the age is men of sterling integrity 
and of a high sense of honor; men of clear judgment 
to discern the right and a readiness to perform it; 
men who, when they swear to their own hurt, are yet 
willing to keep their faith. We want men whose 
word is at any time as good as their oath ; who believe 
that God rules us in business matters, and not the 
devil, and for this reason are content to deal honestly 
with all; who believe that there is a Ruler of nations 
who holds all men to the law of right in their selecting 
of candidates, as well as in their prayers; who believe 
there is an eternal power that works for righteousness^ 
and that even the stars in their conrses" fight for 
him who is willing to preserve the right; that will not 
measure his obligations by the feeble standard which 
is always below the divine standard. We want a 



316 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION 



conscience that will condemn crime,whether committed 
by king or subject, and which dares to rebuke those 
in high places who are doing wrong. We want a 
national conscience which w^ill rid the country of 
national crime, whether called slavery, intemperance, 
polygamy, or by whatever name known ; which will 
stand by the public faith, w^hatever unthinking con- 
stituents may demand, and will sacrifice life, if need 
be, for the nation's defense; that will strike down an 
enemy who comes with bribes in his hand, and that 
will contend for the right though in the minority. 

The evil in our body politic can not be remedied by 
the success of one political party or another. The 
trail of the serpent is over them all. It must be done 
in our Christian homes and our Sabbath-schools, 
where are daily instilled into the minds of the young 
the principles of morality and the necessity of obedi- 
ence to God's law. Our pulpits, forsaking their dis- 
cussions of denominational differences and their wide 
range of speculation, must impress upon us the truth 
that God's law is to be the rule of life in church and 
state, and in our private and associated capacity. Our 
colleges must hold up before the minds of those who 
are receiving instruction this truth, that the highest 
culture is that of the moral nature, the highest ac- 
quisition the subjection of our powers to Him who 
rules in the armies of heaven and the children of 
men, and the highest product of all these combined, 
— a being who intelligently loves God with all his 
heart, and his neighbor as himself. 

If the line of thought which has been pursued be 



AND THE CHUJICH. 317 

the correct one, what is our duty ? If it be the best 
for the nation that the higher education be furnished 
by the church, then we are under obligation to the 
nation to furnish Christian colleges for the youth of 
the land. It is especially necessary for the success of 
the church itself. The ministers who make our pros- 
perity should — and in the main will — come from our 
own schools. Those who control our church-litera- 
ture should have their training in the colleges of the 
church. The daty devolves upon our clergymen, first 
of all, to send their own children to these institutions, 
because here, other things being equal, they will re- 
ceive the culture best fitting them for their relations 
in life. In addition to this, they should see that these 
schools are well patronized by the laity. If there be 
a need for the existence of this church, it must do its 
part in supplying the nation with intelligent citizens ; 
and it can do this best by placing its own citizens in 
its own schools. If the laity do not understand their 
obligations in this respect, the ministers must teach 
them. In addition to this, they must learn that col- 
leges can not be supported without money ; that those 
who possess it are the Lord's stewards, and must give 
of their money for this purpose. They are agents to 
disburse what has been committed to their hands. 
The needs of the nation and their relation to the 
church of G-od put the work upon them. It is one of 
his methods for evangelizing the world. 



Compkttan of tijB Soul 

(COLOSSIANS 2: 10.) 



THE subject suggested by the text is soul-comple- 
tion ; not soul as distinct from body, nor the spir- 
itual as distinct from mental, but in a more general 
sense, as including all that helps to constitute a 
genuine man,— a properly developed and fully devel- 
oped human being. 

Incompleteness may mean simply lack of develop- 
ment. The child is an incomplete man. It has all 
the powers and capabilities of manhood in their in- 
cipient condition. It needs the gentle touch of cult- 
ure and the inspiration of a high purpose to unfold 
these powers so they shall do their allotted work. 
The plant is the incomplete tree. In such a case to 
complete would mean to unfold, develop, and train 
that which gives promise and potency of what is yet 
to be. 

That is incomplete which has been turned out of its 
normal path and needs to be restored to it again. 
The first man who lived upon this earth was placed 
here by his heavenly Father that his powers might 
be expanded, his aftections strengthened, his will ex- 
ercised upon proper things, and he become a freely 
developed man. His disposition, his tastes, his affec- 



320 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



tions, his whole being originally was set toward good. 
He yielded to wrong-doing. His affections became 
perverted. His judgment became clouded. Hence- 
forth the bent of his nature was to evil. To complete 
such a soul we would need to restore it to its pristine 
beauty and purity, and then strengthen its power for 
good. If this be true of the first man much more is 
it true of all his descendants. Whatever may be the 
fine-spun theories of humanitarian reformers, the 
facts remain to show us that men are born with tend- 
encies to evil, with enfeebled powers, and that to 
make of them what God in the beginning intended 
should be made, we need to change that nature, trans- 
fer those tendencies, give a new purpose to the life, 
and then imbue it with a power which shall lead it 
forth in the right path. 

What are the indications of incompleteness in 
man's nature? That is complete which answers the 
purpose for which it was intended. That watch 
which keeps time accurately, as its maker intended, 
is a complete watch. That steam-engine which per- 
forms its proper work with the least possible friction 
is complete. All machinery is perfect in proportion 
as it does the work intended to be done. The soul, 
the human being, is complete, who properly fulfills 
the law of his being, and accomplishes the purpose 
for which he was created and to which his powers are 
adapted. There might be a question, and with some 
persons it is a question, as to what is man's true end. 

Whatever that may be, wherever you find anything 
out of place, a wrong feeling prevalent, a wrong end 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 321 

sought or wrong means used, there is incompleteness. 
"We learn man's end as we learn the end of every 
other created thing. The parts of the elbow-joint by 
their exquisite adaptation to each other, and the lack 
of power on the part of either to do well the work of 
life without the other, shows they were meant to act 
in harmony. The laws of light and the construc- 
tion of the organ of the eye, show conclusively that 
the eye was intended to be the instrument of vision. 
The peculiarity of man's nature and the facts and 
principles of gravitation all teach us that man was 
intended to cleave to the earth and walk upon its 
surface while birds were to fly in the air. The adap- 
tation of man's nature to certain purposes in life and 
to certain methods of activity show us plainly what 
should be the end of humanity. Only in the pursuit 
of this aim are we to receive the round development 
and fall completion of our powers. Any straying 
away from this, whether we call it sin or accident or 
mishap, will nevertheless be evidence of incomplete- 
ness. To the skilled astronomer the whole heavens 
above us seem to be set in glad array. Each body 
has its appointed place to fill, and the whole moves on 
in perfect order. So regular is this motion, so nicely 
adjusted are the forces that hold these bodies in their 
orbits, and in the impulses that impel them forward, 
that the astronomer can predict their arrival at any 
particular point hundreds of years in advance. The 
sun as the great controlling power of our own system 
marshals these kingly orbs about him. Day after 
day and year after year they march on in their eternal 



322 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



rounds. Even the wild comet in his flight interferes 
not with their movements nor disturbs his own. 
Suppose one of these orbs shoukl become tired of his 
allegiance, rise in rebellion against wise and proper 
laws and refuse to obey. He starts out upon his mad 
career; he goes flying recklessly through space ; at 
each revolution he wheels but farther and farther 
from the central source of light until he gets beyond 
the limit and loses his power to return. Confusion 
has been introduced among the others by this rebell- 
ious member. Their times are interfered with and 
their circuits changed, their mutual influence upon 
each other broken and they driven into circumstances 
from which there is no escape. Suppose these orbs 
all become rebellious, and how wild becomes the con- 
fusion, each flying hither and thither in wild disor- 
der, with no plan, no system, crossing each other's 
tracks, impinging against each other until there seems 
no place for law, for confusion is monarch of the scene. 

Mankind must present some such picture to the 
angelic eye. He w^ho looks from above must see a 
moral degradation among men more fearful in appear- 
ance, more terrific in its consequences than could be 
witnessed by astronomers. Of the vast multitudes of 
earth how few are conscious of the dignity of their 
being; of the purpose of their creation ; of the high 
responsibility and possibilities to which they are born- 
How few realize that God made man to honor and 
glorify him; to find his greatest peace and profit in 
keeping his commandments. How few have God in 
all their thoughts and make it the business of their 
lives to bring their wills in subjection to his. 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 323 

Look at the vast mass of those who in the main have 
liigh hopes and good intentions, and what fearful mis- 
takes do they make. Even their own little standards 
of truth and right which are made without help and 
hence are not God's standard, are never reached. 
What false ideas are men placing before them, what 
will-with-the-wisps are they following. They see the 
glitter and imagine it to be gold. One man makes 
wealth the object of his life and starts hot in pursuit 
of it. He thinks and dreams of gold. He toils and 
sweats to fill his coffers. Ease and comfort, often 
life itself are sacrificed to reach his aim. He may 
succeed when he pays such prices, often does succeed, 
but it is at the cost of his whole better nature. His 
affections have all been shriveled, his heart has 
become frozen, his impulses have been chilled, and 
the man's better nature, because it has not been used, 
has lost its vitality. His powers instead of being 
symmetrically developed have been deformed. 

The man who loves power has pushed his energies 
in the direction of position. He has sought place 
where he might control men. He has been all things 
to all men that he might secure their co-operation. 
He has put his love of truth, his perceptions of honesty 
and justice, his nice discriminations of moral distinc- 
tions, his keen power of conscience, all into the scale 
that he might sway others. At a fearful sacrifice he 
has reached his end; but his whole nature gives evi- 
dence of a one-sided, incomplete developement. 

The student who seeks to commune with the dead 
who are embalmed in books, who desires to penetrate 



324 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



the great unknown and bring up the hidden treasures 
of science and literature which have been buried from 
the gaze of the vulgar, puts before him a grand ideal. 
And yet if, as many do, he should make this the chief 
aim in life, should sacrifice his duty to his neighbor, 
his obligation to look after his moral nature as well 
as his intellectual, he would fail to meet the great end 
of his being. 

Look where you will in the higher ranks of life, and 
you see these incomplete men; men of good impulses, 
of good intentions, of good deeds; men w^ho in many 
respects are doing good service; and yet they are 
misshapen, unsymmetrical, one part of their nature 
dwarfed and the other unnaturally developed. Their 
mental powers may be invigorated and their moral 
powers stunted, and both may be neglected, and the 
physical alone occupy their thoughts. The bee never 
fails in the construction of his cell; the bird in his 
flight never misses the proper direction ; the fox 
never loses his cunning; but these men, made in God's 
image, endowed with immortal powders, miss the aim 
which God placed before them, feed their souls with 
the husks which contain no nourishment, and bring 
not the glory to their Creator which he requires at 
their hands. 

If this be true of well-disposed men, how much 
more true of those who have no high aspirations and 
who grovel in the dust. How the heart sickens at the 
sight of men who have no purpose in life, who live 
like brutes, at the mercy of their passions, given up 
to their appetites, sacrificing their soul's highest wel- 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



325 



fare for less than a mess of pottage. The inborn 
aspirations of their souls have been strangled. 'No 
vision of a blissful future flashes before their blinded 
e^^es. They are in the midst of influences that should 
awaken them to a glorious life; but their nobler pow- 
ers are bewildered, the avenues to their souls are 
closed up. They run their little round oi sensuality, 
and eat and drink and die. They have thrown away 
the rudder and are at the mercy of every wind and 
storm; drifting wrecks on the ocean of life who will 
not only lose their own shattered barks, but possibly 
wreck some fellow-traveler who may cross their 
path. How little of the physical power with which 
God has gifted us is used for his glory? How much 
of mental power is squandered in vice and crime, or 
wasted in sheer neglect? How much moral force lies 
dwarfed and useless for want of a consecrated pur. 
pose to lead it into a vigorous life. 

When humanity is complete, individual man shall 
perform the work his Master has assigned him. 
When each man obeys his Maker, then wars shall 
cease among the nations of the earth. It is only in 
the undeveloped condition of humanity that every 
man's hand is against his neighbor ; and in proportion 
as God's wishes are carried out on earth, to that ex- 
tent will this mad perversion and wild waste of power 
cease. 

Another indication of incompleteness is our lack of 
satisfaction with ourselves — our unceasing cravings 
for something above and beyond us. The lower crea- 
tion about us fill their destiny. They come to their 



326 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



growth aucl mature. The faithful horse is satisfied if 
he have the food and attention necessary for the day. 
He has no aspiration for anythiug higher. Man, 
while finite, has infinite wants and aspirations. The 
broken columns of Xiueveh remind us of the grand 
building, the massive walls, the sculptured figures 
which once adorned that great city. Our human nat- 
ure, maimed as it has been by sin, scarred all over by 
the hand of the barbarian, gives traces of its pristine 
beauty ; and in our hours of highest living, when the 
windows are open and heavenly infiuences come 
streaming upon us, we again long for that former 
splendor, and in our dreams we seem to see the scars 
erased, the depressions filled, the scattered fragments 
reunited, and the temple of humanity standing forth 
in a more than ancient beauty. How exalted our as- 
pirations I How grand our ideas often, but how feeble 
and discouraging our practice. 

" We leap at stars and fasten in the mud, 
At glory grasp and sink in infamy," 

Our 'processes by which we secure the completeness 
of a human beiui^ will not be correct unless we have 
a true conception of the end to be attained. All the 
methods of education to which the parent subjects his 
child are meant to aid in his completion. His tastes 
are to be changed or purified, his judgment matured, 
his will restrained, his affections guided, his passions 
checked, and he be taught to govern himself. The 
result of such an education, if it be properly conduct- 
ed, is certainly a grand one, and gives us a being of 



THE COMPLETIOX 01 THE SOUL. 



327 



finer development, of better qtiality. and capable of 
doing more work for himself and humanity. If we 
could look inside and see the inner condition of 
things, the plav ol the mental machinery in the wild, 
uncultured mind, arid in the one of well-trained 
powers, would be very unlike each other. These 
minds differ in their perception of tlungs, in their 
feelings, their judgment, their tastes, their plans in 
the work of life, in their estimate of the value of the 
present and the everlasting future. They are both 
unfinished : but how different ! 

And yet while this intellectual process has been a 
delightful one and a desirable one. it may present, it 
often does present, a very unsymmetrical development- 
The mental nature has grown at the expense ot the 
moral. One has the proportions of a giant, the other 
the appearance ot the pigmy. The man who has 
opened liis heart to the influences ot the divine Spirit 
and has felt the throbbings of a divine energy pulsat- 
ing through his nature, although he may be ignorant 
of the arts and sciences, yea may not be able to write 
his own name, yet he is nearer a true perfection of his 
powers than the man of the most varied intellectual 
cultitre who has neglected his moral beino-. 

Those also are mistaken who think to complete a 
child's nature, and fully develop him by lilting him 
away from a particttlar calling and putting him into 
another. ^lany fond parents measure the perfection 
of their children by the range of employment for 
which they have prepared them. To make him a 
farmer, a carpenter, a blacksmith, is to make nothing 



328 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



of him. If he were an artist, a banker, a clergyman, 
an author, we should be better satisfied with his pros- 
pects. The mother is willing to drudge on in her 
daily round of duties, but is shocked at the idea of 
her daughter giving herself to housework. She has 
in her imagination mapped out for her a grand and 
glorious destiny. But God has no such standard ol 
judgment concerning human beings ; nor should we 
have. The man who follows the plow or swings the 
ax, in God's estimation may be a grander man, a 
better developed and higher cultured being, than he 
who sets in the governor's chair. Amid the rice-fields 
of the Carolinas, or the plantations of the South, in a 
rude form, covered with a black skin, God may have 
fashioned as white and pure.a soul as ever graced the 
court of heaven ; while he who was born to wealth 
and mingled with the so-called good society, who 
bore aw^ay the honors of his college and listened to 
the plaudits of admiring multitudes, may exhibit to 
the divine gaze as aimless a life, as ill-shapen a nature 
as the earth ever saw. Our occupation may indeed 
aid us; but God can fashion a grand soul in any occu- 
pation, if we will consent to co-operate with him. Xo 
occupation, however humble, shall prevent the true 
unfolding of a human soul which is set on fire of a 
heavenly impulse. No social rank, no grade in life, 
no mere earthly dignity shall bring about this soul- 
completion, nor is any able to hinder it. The great 
sculptor who holds the chisel is master of all resources, 
holds in his grasp all the forces, and under the magic 
of his divine ordering shall work most beneficent 



THE COMPLETIOX OF THE SOUL. 



329 



results. Whether we follow the plow, throw the 
shuttle, or ply the needle, he shall fashion our natures 
into pictures of beauty which shall be a joy forever. 

Hoio can the soul be completed in Christ ? He offers 
a correct and lofty ideal, l^o man ever goes beyond 
his own ideal. " By the ideal that a man loves, and 
by his persistency in cleaving to it and working for it 
you shall know what he really is. This ideal, what- 
ever it may be, seen and embraced, constitutes his true 
and essential nature, and reveals itself in all he thinks 
and does." Xot only the man of culture and refine- 
ment, but even the illiterate man has his ideal, whether 
conscious of it or not- — that is to say, there is some- 
thing which forms the ruling idea and thought of his 
life. The beggar has his, but it may consist alone in 
having a place to shelter him and jjlenty to eat. If he 
has a small amount of means he wants to have more 
and be respected for his riches. These are natural 
wants, but they are more or less ideals. If every 
man has an ideal, and if this is the thing which he 
loves, then it will tend to rule his whole being. He 
who places before men lofty ideas, calling into exercise 
their best powers, and provokes them to a vigorous 
effort to realize them is doing for humanity a good 
thing, if in addition to the creation of this ideal he 
shall give the cunning hand, the disciplined eye, and 
the magic power to make this ideal life his own, he is 
doing for us a work for which he shall be doubly 
blessed. 

If this ideal be not a picture of the imagination, 

not a fantasy of the brain, but if it be embodied in 
22 



330 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



real life, a creature of flesh and blood, it takes hold 
■upon our natures with a stronger grasp, and we can 
more easily make it our own than before. Ideals 
seem to many visionary things. The nearer you ap- 
proach the more they seem to elude your grasp. You 
soon doubt the feasibility of any more eflbrts and 
cease from pursuit. When your ideal is incarnated 
and the veritable flesh and blood stands before you, 
rather than the vague dream of the imagination, you 
are thrilled with new hopes and your flagging ener- 
gies manifest new life. 

In the life and person of Christ we have the high- 
est ideal which has ever been ottered to fallen man. 
'No trait of character, no disposition of soul, no ac- 
quirement of life that is desirable that is not found in 
him. Instead of being the outgrowth of the age, the 
product of Jewish thought, he is beyond anything 
of which Judaism in its palmiest days seemed to real- 
ize. This is not the estimate which is formed of him 
simply by the men of to-day. Those who loved and 
associated with him had the same exalted conceptions. 
The author of the Life and Teachings of Confucius 
(Dr. Legge) says at the conclusion of his work. 

Somehow Confucius is less a sage to me after I have 
seen him at his table, in his undress, in his bed, and 
in his carriage. I must now leave him. I hope I 
have not done him injustice. After long study of his 
character and opinions I am unable to regard him as 
a great man. He was not before his age, though he 
was above the great mass of officers and scholars of 
his time. He threw no light on any of the questions 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



331 



that have a world-wide interest. He gave no inripulse 
to religion. He had no sympathy with progress." 
We have a minute account of many of the incidents 
of Christ's life; and never did those most intimate 
with him entertain any such ideas as this of him. 
Wonderful things had been done in their presence, 
and startling truths had been taught them, and yet as 
the days and months went by they felt there was still 
something grander to be revealed. AVbatever might 
be the circumstances in which he should be placed, 
they had faith in his power. Although forewarned 
of his death, they could not realize the possibility of 
such a thing. When they saw him arrested, on his 
way to trial, — to crucifixion perhaps, — they did not 
lose their confidence. They had thought that it 
would be he who should restore Israel. They had 
conceived him capable of almost any possibility, but 
they were not prepared for his death. When the 
grave gave up its dead, when they witnessed his pres- 
sence for forty days, and his ascension, their faith re- 
vived. The doubts of the past, few as they had been, 
were all gone, and they were ready to follow him, if 
need be, to death. 

Those who were contemporaries of Christ and bore 
honest testimony to him, saw" in his person the same 
wonderfal being that the apostles had witnessed; not 
always able to understand him, yet always seeing that 
he was beyond all others — -a king among men, com- 
pelling their respect if not their affection. His event- 
ful life gave occasion for many such testimonies : 
" Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Do the rul- 



332 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



ers know indeed that tins is the very Christ? " " Many 
of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, 
said, Of a truth this is the prophet." " The officers 
answered, ISTever man spake like this man." 

At one time he stood in the synagogue of his native 
village and expounded the Scriptures. There were 
present on this occasion those with whom he had 
associated in his youth, while with his father he had 
worked at the carpenter's bench. These simple- 
hearted people when they looked upou his face and 
heard his marvelous expositions of the divine word 
were overcome with astonishment and said to each 
other, "Is this not Joseph's son; and his brothers and 
sisters, are they not with us ? Whence hath this man 
this wisdom and these mighty works?" Compare 
with this the testimony of the learned and courteous 
Nicodemus who confessed, " We know that thou art 
a teacher come from God, for no man can do these 
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." 
The citizens of Samaria who, at the urgent request of 
the woman, had gone out to the well said, "!N^ow we 
believe not because of thy saying, for we have heard 
him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, 
the Savior of the world." 

Even the opponents of Christianity, if true to their 
higher instincts and best judgment, must bear testi- 
mony to Christ as the highest model and w^orthy of 
our closest imitation. 

Ernest Renan, the famous French skeptic, in his 
Life of Jesus says, Whatever may be the surprises 
of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



833 



worship will grow young without ceasing; his legend 
will call forth tears without end : his sufferings will 
melt the noblest hearts; all ages will proclaim that, 
among the sons of men there is none born greater 
than Jesus." 

James Martineau tells us, "Christ is the commis- 
sioned prophet, the merciful redeemer, the inspired 
teacher, the perfect model, the heavenly guide." 

W. R. Gregg, an opposer of evangelical Christianity, 
says, "It is difficult without exhausting superlatives 
even to unexpressive and wearisome satiety to do 
justice to our intense love, reverence, and admiration 
for the character and teachings of Jesus. In reading 
his sayings we feel that we are holding converse with 
the wisest, purest, noblest Being that ever clothed 
thought in the poor language of humanity. In study- 
ing his life we feel that we are following the footsteps 
of the highest ideal yet presented to us upon earth." 

Says Dr. Channing, "Here I pause; and indeed I 
know not what can be added to heighten the wonder, 
reverence, and love which are due to Jesus. When I 
consider him as not only possessed with the conscious- 
ness of an unexampled and unbounded majesty, but 
as recognizing a kindred nature in human beings and 
living and dying to raise them to a participation of 
his divine glories, and when 1 see him under these 
views allying himself to men by the tenderest ties, 
embracing them with a spirit of humanity which no 
insult, injury, or pain could for a moment repel or 
overpower, I am filled with wonder as well as rever- 
ence and love. I feel that this character is not of 



334 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



human invention ; that it was not assumed through 
fraud or struck out by enthusiasm; for it is infinitely 
above their reach." 

Says Theodore Parker, who would not likely exag- 
gerate much in his favor, " He pours out a doctrine as 
beautiful as the light, sublime as heaven, and true aS 
God. The philosophers, the poets, the prophets, the 
Rabbis, — he rises above them all. Yet E"azareth was 
no Athens, where philosophy breathed in the circum- 
ambient air; it had neither porch nor lyceum ; not 
even a school of the prophets. There is God in the 
heart of this youth." 

Says Dr. Peabody, ''You can not by any possibility 
bring Jesus down to the level of ordinary hamanity, 
into line with the men of his generation, or even into 
line with the great men of all times. He is the only 
character in history which has no secular parallel, 
which looks as great in the ninetenth century as in 
the first. His too was the most potent spirit that 
ever tenanted a human body. His teachings underlie 
all our modern civilization, all progress, all philan- 
trophy; nor is there a maxim in the improved phi- 
losophy of life, of society, of commerce, of government, 
which has not emanated from his gospel and which 
may not be re-translated, and for the better, into the 
very words that fell from his lips." 

It is easy to find such testimonies even from those 
who are not orthodox in their belief. I shall name 
but one more. Dr. Bellows. 

"In Jesus Christ there broke into the world a 
mighty and shaping influence, a holy will, a spiritual 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



335 



sovereignty, an illuminating, warming, inspiring prin- 
ciple of mingled thought, affection, and volition which 
was, among the other moral and spiritual influences at 
work upon the world of feeling what the mighty gulf- 
stream is among the other currents of the ocean." 

This man, who has been the ideal for almost a score 
of centuries, is the ideal man to-day. Says a vigorous 
writer, "To the medieval knights he was the model of 
chivalry; to the monk he was the pattern of all ascet- 
icism; to ISTapoleon he was the grand man 'between 
him and whomsoever else in the world' there is no 
possible term of comparison. To Strauss, Jesus was a 
wise ruler; to Schenkel, 'the representative of political 
and theological progress;' to Kenan, ' a moral teacher;' 
and to Lequima, the French atheist, he was 'a fault- 
less pattern of virtue, wisdom, and patience; to Fenelon 
he was the most rapt of mystics; to Yi^icent DePaul, 
'the most practical of philanthropists; to Decker, 'the 
first true gentleman that ever breathed;' to Mallen, 
'the true explanation of all history.' To the Unitarian 
he is the unexceptional and greater than all. What 
splendid personality must this be which is fitted to 
attract forever the human soul; which wears not out 
in one life-time, nor in a world's time. He is indeed 
the man of men — the universal man — humanity^ s ideal.'' 

Christ not only gives us an example, the highest 
and best that could be placed before us, but also af- 
fords insjnration and help. How conscious are we of 
weakness! Even when we can discern the true path, 
how little strength of purpose to pursue it ! We 
need some power which shall first of all quicken our 



336 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



powers so we shall have clear perceptions of duty, 
and then shall so energize us that it will not only be 
an inspiration to high and holy resolve, but coming 
upon us like a flood, shall possess and electrify our 
whole nature. Such a power was the divine Christ 
when here upon earth to those who came within his 
influence. With what ease he healed the physical in- 
fimities of men ! He gave vision to the blinded eyes, 
he unstopped deaf ears, and the lame were made to 
leap for joy. These acts were chiefly valuable be- 
cause outward and visible signs of a great spiritual 
reality. They were types of that spiritual restoration, 
that spiritual healing which was waiting for all who 
sought it. Lf this spiritual power could have been 
infused into men's natures without these acts it most 
likely would have been done. When in sorrow and 
almost ready to despond, how it cheers to look upon 
the face of one full of faith and hope ! When fretted 
with the cares and annoyances of life, how healthful 
to meet one who with a strong arm can push them all 
aside and dwell above them ! Christ walked on earth 
as a king among men. With the tenderness and af- 
fection of a woman he had the power of the Omnipo- 
tent. His voice cheered the dispirited ; his hand lifted 
up the fallen, his touch soothed the aching pain; his 
example inspired with courage. The men on whom 
he laid his hands, and into whose hearts he infused 
his spirit, w^ere the men "who through faith subdued 
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, 
stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of 
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



837 



were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to 
flight the armies of the aliens." When the Pentecost 
has fully come, and Christ's parting blessing has come ' 
upon his disciples, how their hearts burn with a holy 
boldness ! They were endowed with a courage, an 
impulse, a spiritual insight which they never before 
possessed. Can it be the same Peter who so cruelly 
denied his Master, and cursed and swore in his pres- 
ence, that now stands before the same wicked multi- 
tude, and with more than human skill thrusts into 
their very teeth the startling utterance, " Jesus of 
ITazareth, a man approved of God among you by 
miracles and signs, which God did by him in the 
midst of you, as ye yourselves also know : him, being 
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowl- 
edge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands 
have crucified and slain?" 

'Not only those who were intimately associated with. 
Christ, but those who never saw him in the fiesh re- 
ceived the same strength and were imbued with the 
same spirit. Says Peter to his Galatian brethren, ''It 
pleased God to reveal his Son in me that I might 
preach him among the gentiles." The revelation of 
that Son was the magic power that changed his life. 
From the severe, earnest, uncompromising persecutor 
of the Christian faith he became the active, enthusi- 
astic, suffering disciple. Set on fire with a new pur- 
pose, his heart fall of divine energy, he went forth 
commissioned of God to save men. Polite and affable 
to the cultivated Greek, honest and faithful to the 
misguided Jew, with all the eloquence and power of 



338 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



which he was capable he hurls at all the thunder- 
bolts of truth. So of others who had drank at the 
same fountains. Amid the most severe trials, sur- 
rounded by the most bitter enemies, experiencing the 
most excruciating tortures, like the blessed Stephen, 
they could bear them all, and their enlarged visioii- 
could look into the open heavens and behold the Son 
of man standing on the right hand of the Father. 

Blessed results flowed from that grand life. Even 
those who hated and despised it telt its power. Much 
more did those who had the ken to discern its worth 
and partake of its blessedness. Says Canon Farrar, 
in his excellent "Life of Christ 

"It expelled cruelty ; it curbed passion ; it branded 
suicide; it punished and repressed all execrable infan- 
ticide; it drove the shameless impurities of heathen- 
dom into a congenial darkness. There is hardly a class 
whose wrongs it did not remedy. It rescued the 
gladiator; it freed the slave; it protected the captive; 
it nursed the rich; it sheltered the orphan ; it elevated 
the woman; it shrouded as with a halo of sacred 
innocence the tender years of the child. In every 
region of life its ameliorating influence was felt. It 
changed pity from a vice into a virtue. It elevated 
poverty from a curse into a beatitude. It ennobled 
labor from a vulgarity into a dignity and duty. It 
revealed for the flrst time the angelic beauty of a 
purity of which men had despaired and of a meekness 
at which they had utterly scofl'ed. It created the 
very conception of charity and broadened the limits 
of its obligation from the narrow circle of a neighbor- 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



339 



hood to the widest horizons of the race. And while 
it thus evolved the idea of humanity as a common 
brotherhood, even where its tidings were not believed, 
all over the world where its tidings were believed, 
it cleansed the life and elevated the soul of each indi- 
vidual man. And in all lands where it has molded 
the characters of its true believers, it has created 
hearts so pure, and lives so peaceful, and homes so 
sweet that it might seem as though those angels who 
had heralded its advent had also whispered to every 
depressed and despairing sufferer among the sons of 
men, "though ye have lien among the pots, yet ye 
shall be as the wings of a dove, that is covered with 
silver wings and her feathers like gold." 

What was true of Christ when in the flesh is true 
of him to-day. The inspirations and help afforded then 
are as freely given now. Whatever views the apostles 
had of his mission, of his relation to them and to the 
world, we have a clearer and grander manifestation 
to-day. His leaving the earth was only that he might 
come to us in a more permanent form and dwell with 
us forever. The day of Pentecost saw the beginning 
of this higher revelation of himself. The end shall 
not be until time shall be no more. "If I go not 
away the Comforter will not come unto you: but if I 
depart I will send him unto you." When he is come 
he shall not speak of himself. If he did he would 
speak in an unknown tongue. Whilst he himself is 
the eternal Secret, his work is open and glorious. 
His text is Christ. From that theme he never strays. 
To the individual consciousness he reveals the mystery 



340 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



of the beauty of Christ. The Christian student sees 
what he did not see twenty years ago, — the same yet 
not the same, larger, grander, tenderer every day; 
a new music in his speech, an ampler sufficiency in 
his grace ; a deeper humiliation in his cradle ; a 
keener agony in his cross. This increasing revelation 
is the work of the Holy Ghost and is the fullillment of 
Jesus Christ's own promise." 

The same effects are produced to-day upon human 
hearts and lives by Christ's influence as when he 
tabernacled among men. Says Paul to some of his 
converts, ^'Fornicators, ^idolaters, adulterers, effemi- 
nate, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortion- 
ers. Such were some of you : but ye are washed, but 
ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of 
the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Else- 
where he says, " We ourselves also were sometime 
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and 
pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hat- 
ing one another. But after that the kindness and love 
of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works 
of righteousness which we have done, but according 
to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regenera- 
tion, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." 

Wherever men to-day shall put themselves under 
the teaching of Christ and are willing to be led by the 
Spirit, whose aim is to convince the world of sin be- 
cause it believes not in Christ, they shall experience a 
new life. The heavens above them shall take on a new 
appearance. The melody of the birds shall be sweeter 
to their ears. The voices of nature shall have a new 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



341 



charm. The roar and tumult of his passion shall be 
subdued. His partial views of himself and the great 
future shall become broader; his hatred of things pure 
and good shall all be removed. A new purpose and 
new energy shall take posession of his life; a new 
mind shall guide him and a strong hand 'shall lead 
him in the right way. 

In the language of Farrar, " If He is gone away, yet 
has he given us in his Holy Spirit a nearer sense of 
his presence, a closer enfolding in the arms of his 
tenderness, than we could have enjoyed even if we 
had lived w^ith him of old in the home of i^^azareth, 
or sailed with him in the little boat over the crystal 
waters of Gennesareth. We may be as near to him 
at all times — and more than all when we kneel down 
to pray — as the beloved disciple was when he laid his 
head upon his breast. The word of G-od ^is very nigh 
us, even in our mouths and in our hearts. To ears 
that have been closed, his voice may seem indeed to 
sound no longer. But the secret of the Lord is with 
them that fear him, and he will show them his cove- 
nant. jTo all who will listen he still speaks. He 
promised to be with us even to the end of the world, 
and we have not yet found his promises fail. It was 
but for thirty-three short years of a short life-time 
that he lived here upon earth ; it was but for three 
broken and troubled years that he preached the gos- 
pel of the kingdom; but forever, even until all the 
seasons have been closed and the earth itself, with all 
the hearers that now are, have passed away, shall 
every one of his true and faithful children find peace 



342 



THE COMPLETIOX OF THE SOUL. 



and hope and forgiveness in his name; and that name 
shall be called Emanuel, which is being interpreted 
'God icith usr' 

AVe are completed in Christ by the fact that he uses 
all the incidents of life — its trials, its enjoyments, its 
duties, its occupations, it sorrows — for our spiritual 
upbuilding. 

How few look upon life with any such views I How 
many look upon these as things whose presence is to 
be dreaded, as hinderances to be pushed aside as 
quickly as possible I A friend once said to another 
on his way home from church, "How sad is it that we 
can not devote ourselves more constantly to our own 
spiritual culture I There are so many utterly un- 
spiritual things to be done or gone through with that 
it is really very little time that we can give to the 
great work of this life — our preparation for a higher 
and better life." And yet this very condition of 
things which is complained of, and which is supposed 
to interfere with our spiritual culture, is a providential 
necessity put upon us by the divine being, and there- 
fore we have a right to assume the very best arrang- 
ment which could be given us. If God and the hu- 
man soul are real veritie-. then we must believe that 
what he orders for it is the best, that it will conduce 
to spiritual protit, and that this school of divine 
providence is that which of all others, if properly 
used, will work out for us the best possible results. 

It may be questioned whether the constant devotion 
to the soul for which many yearn, and which to some 
is the [all-important work of the Christian's life, is 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



343 



after all the best method of cultivating the soul. This 
constant introspection of the soul, this weighing and 
balancing of emotions, this feeling good to-day and 
bad to-morrow, and the estimate which as a result we 
put upon our spiritual condition, this plucking of the 
choice plants in the garden of the Lord to see how 
much they have grown during the night, tends to be- 
get in us a spiritual hysteria, if I may so speak, which 
needs to be counteracted by the bracing air and vigor- 
ous energy of out-door life. A tramp up the mount- 
ain-side will often do more to improve the health, 
and therefore be a more valuable medicine, than 
hours of brooding over real or imaginary ills. A 
man once met Wilberforce, the friend of the black 
man, and said to him, "Brother, how is it now with 
your soul?" and was shocked beyond measure by the 
philanthropist's reply, "I have been so busy about 
these poor negroes I had forgotten I had a soul." 
Yet there can be no doubt that by means of these 
poor negroes Wilberforce's soul had been growing a 
great deal faster than that of his friend who had 
spent half his time in counting the pulse-beats of de- 
votional feeling. There is a value in emotional piety, 
but a perpetual watching of the tides of the soul may 
interfere with its healthy development. There should 
be frequent and regular seasons of special devotion, 
when we shall approach the divine Being and yield 
him that homage which is justly his due. These 
hours are valuable in themselves, but especially valu- 
able for the influence they have upon the duties of 
active life. We need, like Christ and his apostles, to 



344 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



gather strength by turning aside and resting. Hours 
of preparation away from the multitude are neces- 
sary for the great apostle who is to be more abundant 
in labors than they all. He who is to lead a people 
out of bondage and organize a nation which is to be 
a beacon-light to surrounding peoples needs his forty 
years amid the rocks and the mountains. Alone in 
solitude he may commune with Him who grants 
strength to all. But God's school has many depart- 
ments. He trains us by other methods than these — 
by ways which seem to us unusual, and from our 
stand-point may even seem hurtful. Possibly we may 
properly appreciate the special opportunities for wor- 
ship, but we undervalue the good influences of the 
every-day occurrences of life — those things which 
perhaps seem to the Peters of this life common and 
unclean," but which God has so cleansed that they 
are messengers of good. 

How much of the work of life seem a dull, tedious 
routine! Day after day and week after week we 
travel on in the beaten track untit our feet are weary 
and our hands are ready to fall. How we long to put 
aside these burdens that we give ourselves to what we 
call higher work, which shall bring us more variety, 
and of course more enjoyment! And yet if we could 
enter into the plans of the Eternal would we not find 
that much of his work is a daily routine? Has not 
our heavenly Father, day after day for many years, 
bestowed upon us his constant care and attention ? 
His arm never' fails, his heart never grows weary. 
His mercies are new to us every morning, and they 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



345 



continue tliroughout the days of the year; and if he 
be susceptible of enjoyment, who shall dare to say 
that much of his happiness may not result from these 
manifestations of love which come to us every hour 
of the day? If God's Spirit be in our daily work, 
then shall it be exalted; this daily routine shall be- 
come a rainistration of joy, giving spiritual life and 
health and beauty. If this work be for others, and 
be lovingly wrought, it shall bring happiness and 
growth. The atfections, which are a precious part of 
our nature, are thus exercised and strengthened, — it 
may be unconsciously, — and thus better fitted for the 
duties of earth and the joys of heaven. The faithful 
mother who, tired and weary, is yet plying her needle 
to clothe and feed her little ones, if prompted by the 
divine Spirit, .is doing God's service as certainly as he 
who stands in the sacred desk or who fills his seat in 
the prayer-meeting. If this life-work should refer to 
our own necessities, it is a position we can not evade. 
It is put upon us by divine appointment, is therefore 
a part of God's plan, and if performed in a true spirit 
is only routine in appearances. It shall purify our 
nature, and by making us faithful in a few things 
thereby fit us for the larger and more important stew- 
ardship ot the upper kingdom. 

How much of time must be occupied with what 
seems to be profitless social engagements. There are 
precious hours which we could take with pleasure and 
profit from other important engagements and spend 
them in converse with the wise and good whose coun- 
sels should be to us a perpetual joy. But when these 
23 



346 THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 

must be given to those who are stupid and dull, who 
have nothing to offer us in return for our gifts, who 
consume our time for purely selfish purposes, who 
claim our aid and can give us no return for it but 
their need, who subject us to unprofitable questioning 
and compel us to listen to unwise and impracticable 
plans, — can all of this be a part of our spiritual 
growth? It may if properly used. *It is a part of 
God's plan and must be good. So far as the accom- 
plishment of our purposes are coucerned it makes sad 
havoc of these. And yet if on these occasions we 
have exercised unusual patience and kindness, if we 
have relieved heavy burdens, if we have lightened 
up dark pathways, if we have comforted despairing 
hearts, we shall in the not distant future learn that 
these hours, after all, have been among the most 
blessed of our lives. The divine Teacher has told 
us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. 
It may interfere with the mothers plans to answer 
the never-ceasing questions of her boy, but if she does 
it she is making an impression upon his heart which 
no time can erase. She who has borne with his weak- 
nesses and given him of her patience and strength, 
after the divine Being, shall have the warmest affec- 
tions of his heart. Suppose that some of these per- 
sons are not the most edifying to us and must be 
endured rather than enjoyed. May not such an ex- 
perience give us a clearer view of that infinite patience 
and unbounded love which goes out to us; of that 
Being who finds his enjoyment in pouring out upon 
others that love which they do not deserve and which 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



347 



they can not appreciate ? Let iis imbibe that spirit 
which bears with our infirmity, and yet sends forth 
the current of his love with unceasing flow while our 
returns are so feeble and so slow. 

Even the mistakes and follies of life may be lifted 
up into this higher plane of profit. How much of 
vexation and uurest we ofcen bring to ourselves by 
turning away from the true path, even when we have 
done it unconsciously. These experiences are not a 
useless factor in God's economy. When God writes 
upoD a man's features the evidence of the great wrong 
which he has done his own nature, when his outward 
appearance bears testimony to the inward ruin which 
is going on, we can see the wisdom of God's arrange- 
ment. He means thereby to deter other men from 
following in the footsteps of such a criminal. He 
takes the same course in the so-called little sins of 
life. To those who are willing to learn, he writes the 
record of their minor sins in such effects upon their 
natures that they may the more readily turn away 
from them and change their conduct. Without these 
effects in our own experiences we should never know 
our failures or our faults. By this revelation of our 
weakness we are taught to retrace steps improperly 
taken and to guard against any surprises in the future 
which shall lead us away from well-doing. 

The trials of life, of whatever character, are spiritual 
teachers to lead us forward in the divine life. And 
yet the gain is not in the affliction, but in the spirit in 
which it is received and borne. These work the 
peaceable fruit of righteousness only to those " who 



348 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



are exercised thereby." The rains from heaven fall 
upon the parched desert and penetrate the soil, but 
the soil is none the better and no crops are gathered. 
Upon the untilled field it also falls and returns agaiu 
in the form of noxious weeds which cumber the 
ground and displease the taste. In the well-prepared 
soil it comes forth again in the form of waving grain, 
of golden fruit, of rich and fragrant fiowers. The 
damp, chilly da}^ filled with cloud and rain, devoid of 
all sunshine or joy, is the forerunner of the gladsome 
happy day that shall be, and of the rich and precious 
treasures which the field, the orchard, and the garden 
shall afford. So when the dews and rains of God's 
providence come down upon the dwellers in his gar- 
den, some drink them in and are not profited; other 
souls are maddened by the affliction and perhaps hope- 
lessly lost, or send forth the weeds of a bad and dis- 
ordered life; while in others in whose hearts exist 
germs of God's own planting are developed pure 
thoughts, chaste affections, and holy aspirations. Only 
when our natures have been pressed by the divine 
hand do they emit the most exquisite odors and 
exhale the sweetest infiuences. ^ov are these sad 
incidents in our lives entirely devoid of joy. We 
never look upon the world with the same eyes after 
we have passed through such afiiictions. We can 
never bring back the one that is lost ; but how sweet, 
how tender, how strong the love for those that remain. 
We never love with such exquisite tenderness as we 
do after we have lost the object of our affections. 
Then to what a sense of heavenly realities — how near 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



349 



to us seems the unseen world. "Eyes that shed tears 
see clearly," says the gifted poetess. "We talk and 
think and dream of the heavenly world as far away. 
When we have sent a loved one before us we can 
almost look into that goodly land. From the top of 
some spiritual mount we can catch the music of their 
voices as the dwellers there sing the song of Moses 
and the Lamb. How real God begins to appear to 
us: how uncertain life. How death is stripped of its 
terrors. It is only the boat that carries us over the 
river. It pulls down this frail tenement of clay but 
it does not, dare not touch the jewel within. As the 
years come on and the shadows lengthen how empty 
seem the charms of life; how precious the treasures 
laid up in the heavenly city. How the heart longs to 
enter in and sit down with that precious company of 
patriarchs and prophets, of saints and apostles, of 
just men made perfect, and especially to look upon 
Him who hath borne our griefs and carried our sor- 
rows, who was smitten for our infirmities, and by 
whose stripes we are healed. 

This w^orld is a great work-shop, and each individual 
is an artisan. The duties, the trials, the enjoyments, 
the occupations of life are, the saws, the chisels, the 
hammers, by means of which the human soul is to be 
polished for the Master's use. Under his supervision 
the work shall go on day by day, like the magnificent 
temple as it gradually approaches the heavens. When 
to his eye the structure shall be complete, it shall 
become an ornament to the heavenly temple and shall 
manifest his glory. 



^50 



THE COMPLETION OF THE SOUL. 



Now the long and toilsome duty, 
Stone by stone to carve and bring; 

Afterward, the perfect beauty 
Of the palace of the king. 

Now the tuning and the tension, 
Wailing minors, discord strong; 

Afterward the grand ascension 
Of the Alleluya song. 

Now the Spirit, conflict riven. 
Wounded heart, unequal strife; 

Afterward, the triumph given. 
And the victor's crown of life. 

I 

Now the training strange and lowly, 
Unexplained and tedious now; 

Afterward, the service holy. 

And the Master's 'enter thou.'" 



SlfB ©utg of i\jz Ctjurclj to jfurnislj ttjB Woxih 



IT was my pleasure a few short months since to 
stand amid the ruins of ancient Ephesus, that city 
made immortal by the presence and work of the grand 
apostle to the gentiles. By the force of the truth 
which he here taught, not only in public, but from 
housc^to house, he shattered the foundations of their 
idolatrous temples and struck terror to the hearts of 
the worshipers themselves. The ruins of the mag- 
nificent temple which enshrined the image of their 
tutelary goddess are still there in broken columns to 
show the world what grandeur once existed here — 
possibly the remains of the school of Tyrannus, and 
the theater that furnished amusement for this city of 
fashion and idolatry ; but the man who towered above 
all others, and whose deeds have made the city famous, 
was gone, as were all those who had listened to his 
forcible utterances and who had sought to hinder the 
work which a divine edict had ordered him to do. A 
half-clad native or two looking after his cattle and 
the music of a stray bird are about all the living 
things that now are found to attract the attention of 
the 'visitor as he wanders amid the splendid ruins 



352 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



whicli are endeared to him by the most thrilling as- 
sociations. 

When his own work was done Paul commissioned 
his spiritual son Timothy to take charge of the church 
here, and for years, amid perplexity and oppression, 
in trials and disappointments, he proceeded to build 
the superstructure provided for by the foundation 
which had been laid by his predecessor. When Paul 
was in prison and in sight of execution, he remem- 
bers this church and this man, and^vrites to Timothy, 
o^ivins: him counsel as to his own needs and the 
church which he serves, as w^ell as others over ^vhom 
he may have had some supervision, and says to him 
in words which were to be the guide and law of the 
church through all future time, ''And the things lohich 
thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same 
commit thou to faithful men loho shall he able to teach 
others also.'' 

I shall assume as taught in this verse, and in other 
scriptures, that the Christian ministry is estabhshed 
of God for the upbuilding of his church, the perfect- 
ing of the saints, and the salvation of the world ; 
that it is necessary to the well-being of the church, 
and is therefore to be continued as long as tlie church 
shall exist ; that no one has a right to enter upon it 
as a mere business as men may enter upon other oc- 
cupations, but that one may take upon himself this 
work when divinely called for this purpose; that 
when God does call a man to make preparation for 
this work, the interests committed to his care demand 
of him the very best preparation which his time and 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



353 



circumstaDces will allow. Whatever may have been 
the needs of the past, the obligation rests upon every 
one thus called to follow the example of Timothy to 
"study to shew thyself approved unto God, a work- 
man that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing 
the word of truth." 

I need not in this presence stop to show what bene- 
fits shall accrue to the world from such a competent 
ministry. There is not an interest or vocation in life 
that is not concerned in it. The peace and good order 
of every community, the prevalence of good morals, 
the recognition of man's relation and duty to his fel- 
lows and his God, proper ideas of this life and the life 
to come, the possession of a broad and true culture, 
the prevalence of schools and the disposition to make 
the most of them; in short, our material, intellectual, 
and moral good are all advanced by the advancement 
of the Christian ministry. Do away with this and 
you cripple if not indeed destroy the church. Re- 
move the church, with its systematic teaching of 
Bible truth, and how soon the Sabbath is made light 
of, the Bible forgotten, the religious culture of chil- 
dren neglected, man's higher nature brought into base 
subjection to his lower, virtue displaced by immoral- 
ity, culture by ignorance, and refinement by barbar- 
ism. Every interest of man requires the pulpit 
ministrations of the ministers of the gospel. The 
influence needed, however, is that of the minister 
w^ho is able and faithful, such as God ordained and 
as Timothy was authorized to establish. The bless- 
ings secured will be in proportion to the competency 



354 THE DUTY OF THE CHUKCH. 

of the men, and the more faithful and able the min- 
isters the more good will they do. Hence not only 
the church, but the multitude outside of the church 
are interested in this matter; for their well-being is 
determined by it. Every father of a family, every 
lover of his country, every good citizen, every man, 
whatever his position or creed, ought to be anxious 
that the church should obey the precept given by the 
Head of the church to commit this work only to able 
and faithful men. 

Preaching is an institution peculiar to I^ew Testa- 
ment times. Judaism was mainly a religion of cere- 
monies. It had its tabernacle, and this was the great 
center of power. Its Levites offered sacrifices and 
conducted the education of the people; but not in any 
strict sensefDOuld they be called preachers. True, the 
sacrifices typified Christ ; but when he appeared 
aniong men then their work ceased, and a new order 
was instituted. A theological writer thus speaks of 
the past : 

The inspired men under the Old Testament did 
not preach, they proclaimed the will of God in a 
variety of forms. Moses enacted statutes, predicted 
and prescribed national results as patriot and legisla- 
tor; Joshua, after his sword was sheathed, swore the 
nation to fidelity; Samuel judged and taught with 
divine authority ; David sung as saint and king, and 
gave utterance to emotions common to the church in 
every age ; Elijah challenged and battled for God in 
days of idolatrous degeneracy; Solomon embodied 
his experiences in pithy and pointed sentences; the 



THE DUTY OF THE CHUKCH. 



355 



prophets, as a body, portrayed present obligations and 
future crises; the burdens pronounced by Isaiah ring 
over Babylon, sweep through the wilderness, and are 
borne up the Nile; Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel 
interested themselves with national afiairs and theo- 
cratic history; Obadiah, Haggai, and Malachi censure 
the selfishness of their age. These old seers foretold 
Messiah but did not exhibit him ; they pictured him 
but did not preach him." 

At the beginning of Christ's public work it is said, 
"From that time Jesus began to preach," and w^hen 
he sent forth his disciples, he sent them out saying, 
"As ye go, preach;" and after his resurrection, his 
final injunction to them and to those w^ho should come 
after them w^as, " Go ye into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature." It was not a temporary 
institution to last for a day ; but by its very terms it 
was to be a perpetual thing, necessary as long as there 
should be a church on earth. 

I. One of the first qualifications requisite to a com- 
petent ministr}^ is to be a man of piety, a regenerate 
man ; a man of deep religious experience. Of course 
his -own personal salvation would require this. Unless 
he is this he may preach to others and teach them the 
way of life and become a castaw^ay himself. However 
gifted in other respects, if an unconverted man he 
will accomplish but little. We can not say that God 
may not use the unregenerate man to help others. 
We can not say that Judas Iscariot by his example 
or his teaching may not have been of service to his 
countrymen, but we can sg.y on the authority of Holy 



356 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



Writ that no man can meet fully and successfully 
the work placed in the hands of the gospel minister 
unless he be a converted man. 

The physician who has given no attention to med- 
icine, who has never in the dissectins^-room examined 
the anatomy of the human body and knows nothing 
of the relations of the parts to each other, who has- 
never watched the effects of different medicines, nor 
scanned the symptoms of the varied diseases, is not 
the man to be employed when human life is endan- 
gered. The man who is ignorant of the fundament- 
al principles of law, and the nature and value of 
human testimony, is not the man to whom we must 
intrust interests that are fraught with vital conse- 
quences. Much less can we with any sort of consist- 
ency come to a man who has no experimental knowl- 
edge of the way to salvation, for spiritual counsel and 
help. When the heart is weighed down w^ith the 
burden of siu, when there is a fearful looking for of 
judgment to come, when all is dark before us and 
the way hedged about with difficulties, to whom shall 
we go except the one who has traveled the same road,, 
and knows the true path? The man who has never 
studied the classics can not aid much in the mas- 
tery of Greek; the one who has given no attention to 
the higher mathematics can not help us to follow the 
stars in their courses. The man who has never been 
in the gall of bitterness and has never found the way 
of light and life is in no condition to point others to 
the source of all help. It will be the old story of the 
bhnd leading the blind, and with dreadful results. 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



357 



Men's clearest interests are committed to liim,buthe can 
not direct them. In sickness, in lieaitli. in prosperity, in 
adversity, uuder any and all circumstances, he has the 
open door to the heart : but he can not enter in, nor 
can he relieve the burdened soul of the weight that 
is oppressing it. To such a man nothing could be so 
irksome as to meet the duties which his calling 
demands and yet know that he is utterly incompetent 
for the task. AVhat would he say to the soul con- 
victed of sin: what to the poor man who has lost all 
hope : what to the panting heart scarcely able to grasp 
the promises: what to the old saint whose whole life 
has been one of care and toil and disappointment ; 
what to the man on tlie verge of the grave and in 
sight of the heavenly world; what to him whose head 
is white with the frosts of many winters and yet is 
not prepared? His whole life is a living lie. He is 
urging men to do what he does not do himself. Every- 
thing that he teaches is contradicted by his own prac- 
tice, and thus he becomes a sounding brass and a 
tinckling cymbal."" 

Xot only must he be a pious man, but he should be 
a man of deep religious experience. 'Whatever depths 
there may be in the plan of salvation, to the extent of 
his ability he should sound them. He should know 
the heights to which God"s love extends. If he urges 
upon his people a fuller consecration of themselves, 
their duty to seek a richer Christian experience, he 
must first have traveled that way himself, otherwise he 
is in no condition to recommend it to them. TVhatever 
truths he commends to others should have been tested 



358 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



by himself, and whatever experiences he wishes others 
to possess should first of all be wrought out in his 
own nature. He must go before his flock exploring 
the fields, testing the green meadows, climbing the 
mountains, and sitting by the streams before he shall 
urge them forth to what without this knowledge 
might prove to them a useless pursuit. 

Parents make a mistake in selecting the ministry 
as a pursuit for a particular son irrespective of any 
spiritual qualification for it. It may be very natural 
for a father whose whole life has been given to saving 
men to want his son to follow in his footsteps. It is 
right for that father in the quiet of his own chamber 
to ask God to incline that boy's heart to his service, 
and to qualify him and cause him to enter it. But to 
select the ministry as a profession as he would select 
any other business, and urge him into it without first 
knowing that God had washed his evil heart is a very 
grave mistake, which, unless corrected, may work his 
son's ruin as well as the ruin of others. When young 
men seek to enter the ministry because destined to it 
from infancy, because they want to gratify parents or 
friends, because it is a reputable calling which will 
place them amid pleasant associations, because they 
will have time and opportunity for literary and other 
pursuits rather than because they love the work of 
the ministry and are called to it, they are degrading 
the ofiSce and placing it on a level with more secular 
employments. 

This point has been and should be carefully guarded. 
So important is it that no man, whatever his literary 



THE DUTY OF THE "CHURCH. 



359 



ability, or however extensive his scholastic acquire- 
mehts, should be inducted into this office who does 
not give unmistakable evidence of a change of heart. 
So anxious were our fathers on this subject that for 
many years they discouraged theological training and 
theological seminaries for fear they might put men 
into the ministry for their scholarly ability and irre- 
spective of their spiritual gifts. If our seminaries are. 
to give us scholarly men merely without piety, then 
perish the seminary and let us have the piety without 
the scholarship. We have learned in our day that the 
two are not only not hostile but mutually helpful. A 
man loves God none the less because he knows G-od's 
works, because he can call the stars by name, observe 
the planets in their courses, and understand the laws 
that govern in the realm of matter. A man loves his 
fellow-men none the less because he knows more of 
his nature, his possibilities, his wants, and how to 
meet them. The more a man knows of God, if an 
honest man, the more he will love him; the more he 
knows of his brother man, the better prepared to aid 
him. In the language of an old theologian, "Accursed 
be that knowledge which sets itself in opposition to 
vital piety. Accursed be all that learning which dis- 
guises or is ashamed of vital piety. Accursed be all 
that learning which attempts to fill the place or super- 
sede the honors of vital piety. Kay, accursed be all 
that learning which is not made subservient to the 
promotion and to the glory of vital piety." 

II. He needs to be a man of good sense, a man of 
tact and prudence, of well-balanced mind, with good 



360 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



powers of discernment, l^o matter how pious a man 
may be, how good his intentions, how correct his 
motives, if he lack prudence he will make a failure. 
Holy Writ requires him to be as wise as a serpent as 
well as harmless as a dove. He need not be a man of 
transcendent genius — indeed it were better he should 
not be, if to be erratic is one of its characteristics. A 
man of fair mental ability, controlled by practical 
good sense, will accomplish much more than the man 
of greater mental power, but deficient in judgment. 

'No man ever thinks of intrusting his life and the 
interests of his family to a physician who lacks this 
discretion. No man's property or business arrange- 
ments are safe in the hands of a lawyer who has no 
clear idea when to speak, how to speak, or what to 
say. If he can not control his tongue, his time, his 
actions, he will not control much business. The 
government can not send as its representative to 
another nation the man who is rude in manner, in 
dress, uncivil in language or bearing, in short, who 
has no sense of propriety, no proper appreciation of 
his relation to the foreign power and the restraints 
which that relationship puts upon him. Sometimes 
we blunder in our appointments and make the mistake 
of sending a man who lacks this keen sense of decorum; 
and w^hen he does some rude or incongruous thing, 
as he is sure to do, our ears tingle with shame. With 
how much more reason does the man who represents 
the King of kings need to be a discreet man. Without 
it his public ministrations will be full of blunders. 
Things that should not be said are sure to be uttered, 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



361 



and things that should be heralded to the whole 
world are forgotten. The interests of his congrega- 
tion are neglected. When it comes to his pastoral 
duties, to seeking souls by individual effort, the means 
are so various and the circumstances so different that 
nothing but the most prudent conduct will insure 
success. The pastor touches us at every step and in 
every relation in life. He baptizes us at birth; he 
marries us in manhood; he buries us in death. His 
name is the charmed word which flings open every 
door, and is always spoken with respect and affection. 
We commit to him our dearest hopes, our saddest 
sorrows, our most cherished interests. If rude when 
he should be civil, if sad and dispirited when he should 
be cheerful, if gay and frivolous when he should be 
sober, if lazy and indolent when he should be diligent 
and earnest, in short, if he lack all sense of the fitness 
of things and does what our native common sense 
says should not be done, his influence for good is 
destroyed, the church is dishonored, applications come 
for his removal, and in a few years the trouble is to 
know where to put him. 

To* this day there come fresh to my mind memories 
of some early preachers who regularly came to my 
father's house with saddle-bags in hand but with an 
honest look in their faces' which showed them to be 
earnest men. They were genial men, with a grasp of 
the hand for the old and a smile and a pleasant word 
for the young. They prayed for us at the family altar; 
they encouraged us to read, to study, to make some- 
thing of life; they helped us in our troubles and 
24 



362 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



showed us more clearly the way of life. They hated 
sin, but they loved sinners. By their discreet, pru- 
dent example, as well as by their earnest, strait-for- 
ward preaching, they won converts to the truth. 
Cheerful without levity, thoughtful without gloom, 
earnest without rant, simple without being nonsen- 
sical, they won the heart of saint and sinner, and 
honored the M ureter they professed to represent. 

I have another picture in memory which will most 
likely never be lost. I once visited a farm-house 
where I found the preacher also visiting. He was an 
able-bodied man of good 'physique and capable of good 
service. The house was one of the old-fashioned kind, 
with a porch running the whole length. For hours 
this man would sit on the porch, with his feet at a 
dangerous elevation, with an old pipe m his mouth, 
which may have come down as an heir-loom from the 
family of ^NToah ; and between his puffs the saliva was 
flying in ever}^ direction. He was a man of good 
mental ability, but I saw no reading. He seemed to 
be ignorant of the luxury of thinking. This man was 
sent to teach the humble folk of the neighborhood 
that this sensual life must be trodden down and the 
spiritual have sway; that we must not be of the earth, 
earthy. If I should say, " of such is the kingdom of 
heaven," you would smile ; and yet if called of God he 
was a representative of his Master, and if honest must 
say to his people, "follow me as I follow Christ." This 
occurred years ago ; but I watched his history. He 
has been changed from conference to conference ; and 
nothing so troubles the stationing committee to-day 
as to know what to do with him. 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



363 



The people make a great mistake when they want 
to put a man into the ministry because a pious man. 
Pious men are needed among the laity as well as in 
the ministry. A man may be a good man at heart 
but if wanting in other qualifications which are neces- 
sary to make the minister a success, under no circum- 
stances should he be tempted to enter. 

III. A competent ministry must possess extensive 
knowledge. An ignorant man can not become a model 
minister. Whatever may be his piety or his prudence, 
without knowledge he is weak and inefficient. The 
day has gone by when men can quote the example of 
the apostles in justification of an ignorant ministry. 
Unlettered perhaps in cabalistic lore and untaught in 
the rabbinical schools, but we have no reason to think 
they were not men of a fair education, and such as the 
majority of their countrymen possessed. They could 
read and understand the Old Testament scriptures in 
the original Hebrew, and could further read and speak 
and write the Hellenistic Greek current in Palestine. 
Their writings show them to be men who knew how 
to express themselves correctly, and that they were 
men of good judgment and skillful observers. Add 
to this the fact that they were under the constant 
and varied instruction of the best theological teacher 
the world ever saw, and we can have some idea of 
their ability. If men of such advantages and power 
are to be called ''ignorant" preachers, then let the 
church give us more of them. The finest scholar in 
the land would value such an opportunity as above 
all price, and regard the privileges which he possessed 
as unworthy to be named in comparison. 



364 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



We have reached the period in the world's history 
when all thinking men agree that the most efficient 
minister needs not only general information but special 
training for his work. As far back as 1650 Bishop 
Wilkins said : 

"It hath been the usual course at the university to 
venture upon this calling in an abrupt and over hasty 
manner. When scholars have passed over their phil- 
osophical studies and made some little entrance upon 
divinity, they presently think themselves fit for the 
pulpit, without any further inquiry, as if the gift of 
preaching and sacred oratory were not a distinct art 
of itself. This would be counted a very preposterous 
course in other matters if a man should presume on 
being an orator because he was a logician, or to prac- 
tice physic because he had learned philosophy. And 
certainly the pre-eminence of this profession above 
others must needs extremely aggravate such neglect 
and make it so ixmch the more mischievous by how 
much the calling is the more solemn." ■ 

What must be the kind and amount of knowledge 
which he is to possess? It is difficult to fix a limit. 
In all the range of human knowledge there is no 
branch of science, no department of human thought, 
a knowledge of whose facts and laws may not be of 
service to the discreet, wide-awake minister. The 
whole kingdom of science may be laid under contri- 
bution for his work. This work is the grandest of 
all and can be aided by all. Let him glean from all 
fields and find truth wherever it may be found, and 
he shall learn that all may be tested in the crucible of 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



365 



his thoughts and be used for the spiritual culture of 
the race, for all represents the thoughts of Him who 
giveth knowledge, yea who is knowledge itself. While 
this general statement is true there are some kinds of 
knowledti:e which are more essential to him than 
others. 

I. He comes as a representative of the King of 
kings to proclaim to fallen men the will of the court 
of heaven. This is in documentary form, inspired 
of the Holy Ghost, but written by human beings who 
wrote the mind of the Spirit yet preserved their own 
individuality. It is contained in a book, or to speak 
more accurately, in sixty-six books, written by more 
than a score of authors, and covering more than 
twenty-four centuries of time. It was written in a 
language not now in use; describes customs and peo- 
ples and modes of life different from our own. It gives 
us the history of the beginning and progress of the 
world so far as it bears on the revelation of God's will 
to man, with the mention of such natural phenomena 
as were needed to make the account accurate. This 
messenger must be able both to read and understand 
the message as it comes from the hand of the King, 
and hence must have a respectable knowledge of the 
original languages in which it was written. I do not 
mean to assert that we can not have a fair knowledge 
of the Scriptures from a translation, but I do say that 
no work can be so well translated as to reveal the 
same thing to one who knows the original and the 
one who does not know it. There are shades of 
meaning, turns of thought and ideas of the language 



366 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



which are untranslatable. To get it entire you must 
see the thought as the people saw it, and through their 
language. A man who is thus able to read the orig- 
inal document feels a sense of security, a certainty of 
meaning which no other can feel and which will be 
an element of strength to him when he comes to con- 
vince the gainsayers. 

To make it more clear he must be familiar with the 
customs and manners of the people; must know some- 
thing of Jewish and Christian antiquities. The teach- 
ings of this book were uttered to a living people for 
their good, and spoke of customs and ways familiar 
to them. The truth for us must be obtained through 
a knowledof-e of these customs. I£e will need to read 
ancient authors, consult works of travel, and gather 
help and instruction from all sources so as to be able, 
as far as may be, to look at these teachings as one of 
those for whom they were first written, and amid 
these surroundings, interpreting the things not known 
by those that are known. Along with this there 
must be a knowledge of Him who is not only the 
author but the end of the book, the attributes and 
nature of the Divine Being. All truth is consistent 
with itself. The Bible contains a system of revealed 
truth, but scattered here and there without reference 
to any particular order. To have a clear idea of the 
Divine Being, his nature and work, these need to be 
systematized and taught in their relation to each other. 
Hence natural theology and didactic and polemic 
theology must be a part of the minister's turnishing. 
He must not only know the system but must be able 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



367 



to support it by a good knowledge of scripture quota- 
tions. To know the results of this on the world, the 
difficulties through which it has passed and the cour- 
age of its defenders, as well as the consequences of all 
evil systems, he must be familiar with church-history. 
To make the Bible records real and vivid to his own 
mind he must know something of chronology and 
sacred geography. 

As this message is to human beings and designed 
to influence and change their lives he must know 
something of their natures, else he will not reach them. 
He speaks to the human soul ; but how shall he know 
to do this well unless he knows what that is and how 
to reach it? There are laws that govern in the realm 
of mind as certainly as in that of matter. There are 
faculties of mind as there are qualities of matter. As 
matter can not be utilized for good without a knowl- ~ 
edge of these, so mind can not be made available 
except in accordance with the laws that goverm it. 
There are three great departments of mental activity 
— the intellect, the sensibilities, and the will. The 
natural order is to inform the intellect, and through 
that arouse the sensibilities, and thus determine the 
will to action. Then man has a moral nature, which 
is connected with and to some extent determined in 
its activities by his mental, yet is distinct from it. 
What is responsibility, what is the foundation of 
obligation, the nature and force of conscience, and 
what his duties, are questions of vital importance. 
We only know mind in its relation to matter. Hence 
the mutual action and reaction of soul and body needs 



368 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



to be examined and the science of man as a physical 
mental, and moral being must be studied before he is 
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. 

Knowing his message and the minds to be reached, 
then he must understand the means best adapted to 
produce this result. Here is a vast Held for the 
science of homiletics. This human being is a fallen 
being; and while he loves secular knowledge which 
does not reveal to him his own sinfulness, it turns 
away from that which proposes a change of life; "for 
to be carnally-minded is death ; but to be spiritually- 
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind 
is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law 
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are 
in the flesh can not please God." The minister must 
study how best to reach this fleshly nature. He can 
not directly control that will. God himself will not 
compel it to receive his message. It must be an act 
of choice. He has the Holy Spirit to aid him, and 
they both must work in accordance with the laws that 
govern this subtile instrument. The intellect must 
yield to proof. Hence he must arrange his facts and 
proofs in such order that the desired result shall be 
accomplished. His people must not be led astray. 
Hence he needs clear thought, expressed in plain, 
concise, unambiguous language. His illustrations 
must be in good tast and in keeping with the laws 
of thought, otherwise they offend. In short, he must 
reach the human mind as any other speaker reaches 
it — by entreaty, by pursuasion, by argument; and to 
do this his thoughts must be presented in the most 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



369 



forcible and attractive manner, otherwise the human 
heart, not anxious to hear these solemn truths, will 
be turned away, and the minister will fail in his work. 

To do this work well he needs an abundance of 
resources from which to draw. From every depart- 
ment of science, as did his Master, he may draw illus- 
trations which shall make the truth more vivid. A 
practical knowledge of logic will show him how to 
test his own reasoning so as to know that it is solid 
and will help him to reveal the sophistry of those who 
oppose him. The principles of the higher mathematics 
will show the nature of conditioual and absolute truth. 
A knowledge of general literature will show the trend 
of public sentiment ; what thoughts are getting hold 
of men's minds, and what to discourage and what to 
encourage. If Paul could quote to a heathen people 
the productions of their own poets, in order to find a 
lodgment for the gospel, how much more may the 
minister of to-day acquaint himself with the best 
poetry of his age and use their teachings as avenues 
to the human heart. There is not a page of history, 
church or secular, not a fact in the wide range of 
science, not a book of travels, not a respectable journal 
that is published, which will not afford a field from 
which a judicious minister may select facts, illus- 
trations, expressions, and hints that will be of immense 
service to him. The man who fails to keep himself 
in sympathy with his age; the man who is ignorant of 
the books and papers which his people read, and that 
are controlling the thoughts and actions of men; in 
short, the man who does not know men and the infiu- 



370 THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 

euces at work determining their destiny, and how best 
to read them, is not doing the work which his Master 
commissioned him to do. Let him use all the re- 
sources w^hich God has put within his reach to the 
fullest extent possible, at the same time realizing that 
without the help of the divine Spirit all this shall be 
ineffectual. 

I have not said and do not intend to say that no 
man should be authorized to preach unless he pos- 
sesses all these acquirements. The apostles were not 
all like Paul in the magnitude of, their resources. 
Men differ to-day in their nature, ability, and range 
of knowledge as they did then. God's work is many- 
sided, and he can use men of moderate ability and 
information as well as persons of more commanding 
powers. What I do say is, that, other things being 
equal, the man of extensive knowledge and well culti- 
vated intellect will do more for the Master than one 
who is not; that each man should put before him this 
aim and acquire to the extent of his opportunity. And 
the man who has the opportunity and will not improve 
it is culpable. 

If you wish to see how a man can use such 
varied acquirements to good effect, study the life of 
the gentile apostle. 'No man among the early church - 
workers had more learning than he; no man used it 
to greater profit; and no man relied on it less for suc- 
cess. Among friendly Jews or opposing Judaizers, 
at cultured Athens or in vicious Corinth, at idolatrous 
Ephesus or barbarous Malta, or at the heart of Rome 
itself, he knows how to avail himself of the vast stores 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



371 



at his command, and says the right thing at the right 
time and in the best way. He is the model preacher, 
a man of piety, of prudence, and extensive knowledge, 
and we may well say of him in comparison with others 
in labors more abundant and more successful than 
they all. 

II. What means shall the church use to accomplish 
this work and furnish the world with such a ministry 
as we have described. We may properly ask this 
question, for God works by means. There are times 
when for special purposes extraordinary measures are 
to be used, yet in the ordinary work of Jehovah he 
uses means to reach results. He uses men as instru- 
ments to save their fellows. By means of these the 
truth is brought home to their hearts by the divine 
Spirit, and they persuaded to accept. In a sense it is 
miraculous, and yet it is natural. So God calls men 
into the ministry, but he reaches them through fixed 
instrumentalities. The young of the church belong to 
Golt and are to be used as he may direct. It is the 
business of the church, through its pastor, to look 
after young men of piety and discretion and show 
them how to determine what God wants them to do. 
For want of a little knowledge men often blunder at 
this point. I once listened to the experience of a man 
who had made application for license to preach. He 
had passed through no startling experiences, had 
received no unusual manifestation, but for months 
had had a conviction that this was in the line of duty. 
He had resolved to follow* what seemed to him the 
divine leading, and asked the church to approve his 



372 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



decision. At the conclusion an old brother who had 
been listening shook his head. It seemed to him a 
very strange experience. As to his own call, he had 
spent sleepless nights over it, and ''woe is me if I 
preach not the gospel " had rung in his ears for weeks. 
Thus God had dealt with him, and he could not under- 
stand this new method of procedure. The most satis- 
factory explanation was that the old man had rebelled 
against the Spirit when it called him and therefore his 
unrest and trouble came from a goading conscience. 
The young man proposed no rebellion, but implicit 
obedience to the call and therefore the absence of all 
disquietude. 

Soon after my conversion, when a mere boy, a 
judicious pastor spoke to me of the great work of the 
ministry and the need of more workers to save a lost 
and ruined world. Again and again in a quiet, unob- 
trusive way he referred to this matter. He loaned 
me books so as to interest me in him and thi^s help 
him to influence me more. When called to another 
field of work he wrote me frequently. I thus became 
familiar with the subject, and when looking forward 
to the work of life it would come up before me. I have 
no doubt the divine Spirit used the words of this little 
English preacher, William Stephenson, whose name I 
want to preserve in this connection, and whose history 
is familiar to the older members of the church in 
western Pennsylvania, to lead me into the Christian 
ministry. Had he not done this other means might 
have been used, for God's means are various; but that 
some instrumentality is used for such purposes is be- 
yond question. 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



373 



The Lord often uses pastors for such results. They 
must use good sense and wisdom as to the means to 
be employed. They need occasionally to preach on 
the evidences of a call to the ministry. They need to 
pray that the minds of the young may be so directed. 
They need to speak of it in the public meetings of the 
church. They must not forget them in their pastoral 
visiting. They must converse with the young people 
themselves, and thus get the iiiatter before them and 
help them to determine what is duty. 

There maybe those who have a zeal, but not accord- 
ing to knowledge, and therefore "rush in where angels 
fear to tread," but as a general rule the church has 
less occasion to rebuke the officious and self-conceited 
forwardness of those who offer themselves, uncalled 
to the sacred office, than to seek out those who, 
like Saul, are '4iid away among the stuff" and 
indisposed to undertake a work for which they have 
the proper qualifications. Some are diffident and un- 
assuming and hesitate to take upon themselves these 
responsibilities, the thought of which made even the 
apostle exclaim, ''Who is sufficient for these things ! " 
Some are kept back by secular considerations and 
need to be addressed by the church earnestly and 
faithfully on the claims of the ministry as compared 
with other callings. Another needs to have his con- 
science aroused; another a more fervent tone of piety. 
These may be the- main obstacles that hinder from 
entering the ministry. Sometimes the way of duty is 
not plain. Samuel w^as called to the prophetical 
office when quite young. The call was audible, 



374 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



addressed him by name, and was repeated three times. 
He heard it, but understood not its meaning until 
instructed by Eli; after which, when "the Lord came 
and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Sam- 
uel," he answered, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant hear- 
eth." It is said of Samuel Gilpin, an English minister^ 
that he considered his "first impressions relating to the 
ministry as the delusions of the devil," and used to 
spend "hours in the fields under hedges, by night and 
by day," praying that the great God would deliver him 
from these delusions. This " anxiety brought on a 
weakness in his stomach which refused to retain any- 
thing which he had eaten, during one year, and reduced 
him almost to a shadow." What a relief to him, had 
a faithful pastor or some Christian friend, instead 
of waiting for him to disclose his feelings, approached 
him more freely in the way of the gospel ! 

In McCrie's life of John Knox there is an interesting 
account of the great retormer's call to the ministry. 
"These persons were so well pleased with Knox's 
talents and his manner of teaching his pupils, that 
they urged him strongly to preach in public, and to 
become colleague to Rough. But he resisted all their 
solicitations, assigning as his reason that he did not 
consider himself as having a call to this employment, 
and he would not be guilty of intrusion. They did 
not however desist from their purpose, but having 
consulted with their brethren came to a resolution 
without his knowledge that a call should be publicly 
given him in the name of the whole church to become 
one of their ministers." 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



375 



Accordingly on a day fixed for the purpose, Rough 
preached a sermon on the election of ministers in 
which he declared the power, which any congregation, 
however small, had over anyone in whom they per- 
ceived gifts suited to the ofiice, and how dangerous it 
was for such a person to reject the call of those who de- 
served instruction. The sermon concluded, the preach- 
er turned to Knox, who was present, and addressed him 
in these words : Brother, you shall not be ofiended^ 
although I speak unto you that which I have in charge 
even from all these here present, which is this : In 
the name of God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ, and in 
the name of all that presently call you by mouth, I 
charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation, but 
as you tender the glory of God, the increase of Christ's 
kingdom, the edification of your brethren and the 
comfort of me, whom you understand well enough to 
be oppressed with the multitude of labors that you 
take the public office and charge of preaching even as 
you look to avoid God's heavy displeasure and desire 
that he shall multiply his graces unto you." Then 
addressing himself to the congregation he said, " Was 
not this your charge unto me, and do you not approve 
this vocation?" They all answered, "it was: and we 
approve it." 

" Overwhelmed by this unexpected and solemn 
charge, Knox, after an ineffectual attempt to address 
the audience, burst into tears, rushed out of the as- 
sembly and shut himself in his chamber. His coun- 
tenance and behavior from that day until the day he 
was compelled to present himself in the public place 



376 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



of preaching did sufficiently declare the grief and 
trouble of his heart, for no man saw any sign of mirth 
from him for many days together." Will any man say 
that Scotland's greatest preacher was not called Of 
God to this work? 

II. The church must 'provide funds for the support 
of those who need aid while preparing in the college 
or in the seminary for the work of the ministry. 

The great apostle wrote to the ch'urch at Corinth, 
"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many 
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many 
noble, are called : but G-od hath chosen the foolish 
things of the of the world to confound the wise: and 
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to 
confound the things which are mighty ; and base 
things of the world, and things which are despised, 
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to 
bring to naught things that are : that no flesh should 
glory in his presence." 

This has been God's plan in every age. Says 
D'Aubigne in the "History of the Reformation," " God 
who prepares his work for ages accomplishes it, when 
his time is come, by the feeblest instruments. It is the 
method of God's providence to effect great results by 
inconsiderable means. This law which pervades the 
kingdom of nature is discerned also in the history 
of mankind. God chose the reformers of the church 
from the same condition and worldly circumstances 
whence he had before taken the apostles. He chose 
them from that humble class which, though not the 
lowest, can hardly be said to belong to the middle 



THE DUTY OF THE CHUKCH. 



377 



ranks. Everything was thus to make manifest to the 
world that the work was not of man but of God. The 
reformer Zuingli emerged from a shepherd's hut 
among the Alps; Melancthon, the great theologian 
of the Reformation, from an armorer's workshop; and 
Luther from the cottage of a poor miner." 

The experience of the churches of this land lies in 
the same direction. The candidates for the ministry 
either come largely from the families of ministers 
themselves or from persons not possessed of wealth. 
Usually the sons of the poor are those whom Christ 
has chosen to make others rich, they however "rich in 
faith and heirs of the kingdom." "It was found some 
years ago upon inquiryHn some of the principal theo- 
logical seminaries, that almost five-eighths of the stu- 
dents needed pecuniary help from organized or private 
means; and that from these five-eighths came almost 
three-fourths of the foreign missionaries of different 
churches." 

The ministry is different from other professions, and 
we must so treat it. The young man who enters upon 
law or medicine has many inducements before him. 
If faithful to his business he knows men must have 
his services. His income to a great extent is a mat- 
ter of his own determining. Prospects for preferment 
open up before him. Even if he has incurred a debt 
in preparing for his work he has every prospect of 
paying it soon. The minister has no such inducement 
before him and has no right to look for any. When 
his education is finished and he is ready to work he 

only expects a living, and that a meager one. He does 
25 



378 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



not and can not control his income. He can not 
refuse to preach because the pay is not such as he 
would desire. He can not justly remit his work in 
whole or part and look after other business. To him 
the incurring of debt is a heavy burden. 

I know it is said in opposition to this that if thrown 
upon his own resources he will develop the very 
elements of character which he will need in his work. 
This may be true, but it is at a heavy expense to the 
church. During all this time it has lost his services. 
His work has not been well done. He enters his 
profession late in life overworked, discouraged, and 
not well prepared for the future. These candidates 
often come from the homes of preachers themselves. 
It was all their father could do to provide for their 
support at home. The bo}^ enters college. By dint of 
teaching, or other resources, he gradually works up- 
ward in the course. His life is one of constant care 
and anxiety. Every penny must be carefully guarded 
so as to lengthen his school-days. He is growing in 
years and therefore tries to shorten his course. He is 
crowded with studies. He hurries over his work or 
overloads and injures his health. He possibly becomes 
discouraged, leaves college and begins to preach, feel- 
ing all his life as though he had made a mistake. It 
he holds on until he obtains his diploma, he has ahead 
of him three years more in the seminary. Where shall 
he obtain funds for this work? His courage fails him 
and he does not attempt it. This is no fancy picture. 
Those familiar with the details of college-life know it 
to be true. Every term of college I send away young 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



379 



men who are in danger of being lost to the church 
because of the financial burdens which are oppressing 
them. And yet these men of good brain, but meager 
resources, are the very best we have. These the 
church can not afford to lose. A little help at the 
turning-point would lift them over the difficulty, and 
their life-work would be accomplished. 

This has been the practice of some branches of the 
Christian church for many years. Some of the ablest 
men in every department of church and state in Eng- 
land received their education in the charitable schools 
in and around the metropolis. Two hundred years 
ago forty-four students preparing for the ministry 
were supported at Oxford and Cambridge universities 
by an educational society formed with an exact system 
of rules, among whose trustees were Richard Baxter 
and Ralph Cudworth." 

III. The Church must furnish a seminary where these 
young people shall receive the best possible instruction 
from competent teachers under the most wholesome influ- 
ences. You may seek out young men for this work 
and you may find meaas for their support, but unless 
you furnish an institution where they shall be well 
taught, you will not do for them the best thing which 
can be done. Students can do as they have done 
before. They can by dint of their own efforts add to 
their little stock of knowledge. After many blunders 
they can find the entrance to the temple of knowledge, 
but they waste time and effort in the search, and 
squander hours that might have been saved, in search- 
ing for the key to unlock its labyrinthine chambers. 



380 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



When the Church furnishes a seminary where they can 
be taught she can inspect their progress; can see that 
the teaching is in accordance with her doctrines. She 
can furnish such facilities as no individual can possibly 
secure to himself in any other way. She places over 
them the best of teachers. They have made a specialty 
of the things to be taught and therefore can give their 
whole time and the accumulation of years. Instead 
of one man having his time divided wdth a multiplicity 
of subjects, each one is taught by a master in that 
department. The associations of fellow-students under 
the same teachers and pursuing the same studies will 
be of help. They can inspire each other, sympathize 
with each other, not only while in the seminary, but 
their mutual aid and association here will be one of 
the most pleasant recollections of other years. Then 
a library of books of reference can be afforded, which 
will be of invaluable aid to them, teaching them how 
to use books, where to look for and how to arrange 
their knowledge. There would be a uniformity in 
the teaching which w^ould allow for the individuality 
of each mind, and yet tend by a oneness of interpre- 
tation to the general peace of the Church. 

The practice of the church in all ages as well as 
the teachings of its most ardent friends are in 
the line of the suggestions just named. Says Dr 
Lightfoot, ''It has been the way of God to instruct 
his people by a studious and learned ministry ever 
since he gave a written word to instruct them in." 
In a previous address I have sought to show the his- 
toric argument in favor of theological seminaries. 



i1 THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 381 

If ^ 

In some form or other from the time when the 
Schools of the Prophets" were founded by Samuel 
to our own day, through the darkest periods as well 
as the times of the Reformation, provision was made 
for the instruction of the clergy. 

Such are a few suggestions helping you to a con- 
clusion as to the kind of ministry which the world 
needs, and what the church can do to furnish it. If 
the reasoning be correct, then I think it no more than 
truth to say that as a church we have been very neg- 
ligent. What we can do is what we should do. The 
limit of our opportunities is the divine measure of 
our obligation. We have not failed to some extent 
to look after candidates for the ministry, but we have 
not assisted them either in providing places of instruc- 
tion for them, nor in aiding them with funds. We 
have done somethingr by encouraging them to home 
study, but they have been compelled to do this with 
little knowledge as to how it should be done, and to 
do it under the most unfavorable circumstances. As 
a consequence, we have not reached the most satisfac- 
tory results. Our preachers, many of them, have been 
warm-hearted, earnest men, but men of limited re- 
sources. We have men of means, but they have not 
been trained to put their mone}^ into training-schools 

^ for the church. Wide awake, possibly, in other direc- 

tions, we have slumbered while these interests were 
demanding recognition. 

We have at times mourned our inefficiency and 

\ sighed over the fact that we were not getting hold of 

the centers of power. We had a theology so far as it 

I 



382 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



was defined, ^wliich commended itself to the good 
sense of many men. We had a flexible system of 
governmentjwhich gave us the advantages of episco- 
pacy and Congregationalism without their hinderances. 
We had men of native^ ability and heart-power, but 
they lacked the skill andfforce of trained men. The 
new recruit is as patriotic as the veteran, but he is not 
as servicable in winning battles as the latter. Then, 
too, the erroneous teaching of the fathers caused many 
an honest man to fear that the teaching of the schools 
might bring a vicious theology and a formal practice. 
They dreaded the knowledge which pufifeth up, for- 
getting that all true knowledge is but reading the 
thoughts of Him who is the source of all wisdom. 

Thei'e were some restless souls in the church who 
could not rest satisfied with this lack of confidence in 
the divine Being, this misinterpretation of the teach- 
ings of the Scriptures, as well as the facts of history. 
They became the troublers of Israel. Their asso- 
ciates were honest and well-meaning, though mistaken 
men, and only needed |the facts to be presented to 
them. As a res'ult of this agitation, in 1869, at Leba- 
non, Pennsylvania, the bishops were instructed to ap- 
point a board of education, whose duty it should be 
to promote the general work of education in the 
Church, and also to found a biblical institute. So 
tender were we of the prejudices of others that the 
name theological seminary was not hinted at. And I 
am not sure that this same consideration did not have 
something to. do with the name of /'Union Biblical 
Seminary." 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



383 



The Board of Education held their second meeting 
on the second of August, 1871, and agreed to open 
the seminary on the eleventh of October following. I 
was present when that vote was taken; and how my 
heart bounded when I saw the progress we were mak- 
ing. These men had no means promised, them; they 
owned no buildings; there were no professorships 
endowed; they had no students promised; but they 
had faith to believe that God had led them thus far, 
and that he would not desert them. In that hope 
the3^ launched their vessel and pushed out from shore* 

In a public address made by invitation of that 
Board I used the following closing paragraph: "Do 
you need any further encouragement in your work? 
Do not reason, revelation, and experience bid you go 
forward and lay deep and broad and strong the foan- 
dation of this newly-planned institution? May it be 
the Andover, the Princeton of this church. May 
your sons flock to it from the uttermost parts of 
this Zion ; and may they here receive that culture 
of heart, that development of mind, that attainment 
of power which shall make them burning and shin- 
ing lights in the church. May its managers be men 
of piety and of wisdom and of sound mind. May 
its teachers be men called and fitted of God for 
their great work. May the people support it with 
their treasures and their prayers. May its interests 
have a lodgment in all their hearts. Above all, may 
God record his name in it, and smile upon it; and 
may unborn generations yet arise and call its found- 
ers blessed." 



384 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



I confess that it is with uo little pleasure that I find 
it possible for me to come back after a period of 
eleven years to take a survey of the situation and see 
how much of this prayer has been realized. During 
this interval a commodious building with excellent 
accommodations has been reared. A lot upon which, 
to erect it, and funds with which to build have been 
famished as a free-will offering to the Lord; and we 
are here to-day to formally set it apart to his service. 
It has a faculty which in numbers and ability com- 
iiiands the respect not only of our own, but of other 
churches. Since 1874 — at which time its first class 
was sent forth — it has graduated forty -nine students, 
who have come from all parts of the Church, and who 
to-day, throughout the length and breadth of the 
land, are living testimonials of the blessed work it 
has done. This makes no mention of others who 
have been in the classes, but have not remained a 
sufficient length of time to complete the prescribed 
curriculum. It has committed a lukewarm, not to 
say hostile church to its interests; and so far as 
known to the speaker, there is not an annual confer- 
ence in this church which has not expressed sympathy 
with it and given it aid. I do not know of any active 
or organized opposition to it anywhere. Systematic 
collections have been taken for the support of its 
students in all parts of the Church. The thoughts^ 
sympathies, and prayers of our people go out toward 
this institution, — not to the extent they should, for 
the affections are a matter of slow growth, but to the 
extent the people understand and know of the good 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



385 



work it has clone. And then there are intangible 
benefits which can only be known by those who are 
accustomed to carefully scan results. It has uplifted 
our whole ministry. There is not an honest clergy- 
man to-day at work who is not inspired to better 
work because of it, and who does not rejoice at its 
success. There is not a young man who has just 
entered the ministrj', however limited his resources, 
who vrill not be the better for its existence; and those 
who are looking forward to the work hope to enjoy 
its advantages. It has given additional power to the 
Sunday-school arm of the Church, and made its work- 
ers more thoughtful and earnest. It has helped the 
press, and given force and power to its communica- 
tions. In short, there is no interest of the Church 
which has not taken a new lease of life, and is more 
vigorous to-daj' because of the influence of this insti- 
tution. 

The existence of this building here to-day, and as 
long as it may exist hereafter, shall be a perpetual 
protest against the notion of some that the influence 
of the minister is decaying ; that religion is losing its 
hold upon the masses ; that the coming man will out- 
grow the church ; that the Bible has already become 
antiquated. On the contrary, it is a re-asserting of the 
old truths that man is a fallen being, and the only 
thing that will save him is the revelation made 
through His Son, and that this must be proclaimed 
through human agency: that this w^orld rightfully 
belongs to God, and that it is the business of the 
Christian church, with the co-operation of the Holy 



386 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



Spirit, to recapture it : that we are to aid in this con- 
test ; that the result will be accomplished ; and here, 
at this West Point of the Church, the roen are to be 
drilled who are to lead the soldiers that shall subdue 
this rebellion and recapture this territory. 

A very grave responsibility rests upon the faculty 
of this seminary, if the teaching of this hour be cor- 
rect. It has been established to secure for this church 
a competent and faithful ministry. The older it be- 
comes the more the Church will rely upon it to supply 
its pulpits. On the successful work of this ministry 
will depend the salvation of immortal souls, and the 
perpetuity of the Church. The task before them is 
no light task. As you look down the ages, and see 
the thousands of human souls who shall be saved 
directly or indirectly through this institution, yo^ can 
have some idea of the immense is^sues which are in 
the hands of these men. There are none who stand 
so near the sources of power as they. They must 
train the clergy of the Church; must fashion its theol- 
ogy; interpret its Scriptures, or teach those who 
shall. They must furnish the commentaries and oth- 
er helps whereby the word shall be made plain to 
the people. In short, they must in time dictate the 
theological thought of the Church. 

To do this well you need men whose passions have 
been chastened by age, as well as men full of the fire 
and vigor of youth; men of cool, clear logic, as well as- 
those of fervid imagination ; men of conservative in- 
stincts, who are careful to hold all the accumulations 
of the past, as well as men who are in favor of laying 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



387 



hold of all the future may bring; men of fact as well 
as of theory; men who to some extent realize the tre- 
mendous responsibility resting upon them ; who are 
more anxious to make able^ministers of the E'ew Tes- 
tament than polite and accomplished scholars ; who 
daily seek communion with the Source of all power, 
and who alone is able to make their labors efiicient. 

I am glad that the senior member of this faculty, 
who years ago laid' the foundations of the collegiate 
work of this church, and who lifted that work to so 
successful a place among the colleges of the land, is 
here to-day to witness the dedication of this building, 
the first theological seminary in this church. To 
none of us can this day be so pleasant as to him, who 
almost forty years ago through adversity and distrust 
and opposition looked forward to this day, and had 
the courage , and patience to wait and^ labor for its 
realization. May he have many returns of this anni- 
versary before he shall be needed in^that grander uni- 
versity whose pupils are the children of the great 
King. And may all these men have our sympathies, 
our prayers, our help in bearing the burdens which 
God in his providence has put upon them. 

If the thoughts of this address be correct the man- 
agers of this theological institution are honored with 
a solemn and weighty trust. Into your hands have 
the membership of this church committed the care of 
•its theological interests. You are to administer the 
funds which shall come to you in such a way as to 
honor God and advance this work. You are not to 
gratify personal prejudice nor to avenge personal 



388 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



pique. You represent not yourselves, but others and 
their interests. You are to provide ways and means 
whereby its funds shall be increased, its resources en- 
larged, and its work made efficient. You are to see 
that the faculty are not so overburdened with duties 
that their efficiency is hindered. You are to provide 
such helpers as the wants of the institution shall from 
time to time demand, and your resources allow. You 
are to defend the institution from unjust assaults, and 
to labor to secure friends for it in every part of the 
land. If it does a good work you shall have your 
share of the honor ; if it injures the Church you must 
take much of the blame. You n^d to be men of 
prudence, of reflection, of piety; men of generous 
impulses, business tact, and strong in faith and cour- 
age. Above all, you need the aid of Him who has 
called, you to this work, and who will hold you to a 
strict accountability for the trust committed to you. 

In view of the preceding teaching I want to say 
further that it is the privilege and duty of the mem- 
bership of the Church to support this seminary with 
their means. There are persons who interpret the 
Bible to say that ministers and all they have belong 
to the Lord, and therefore they should make willing 
sacrifices. They should give their time, their labor, 
their means to the work of the Church ; but no such 
call is made upon the laity. This is false and vicious 
teaching. God makes no such distinction, nor should 
we. He as much requires the time and resources of 
the man who sits in the pew as the man who sits in 
the pulpit. It is the church and not the clergy which 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



389 



is to furnish the world with tiiis competent ministry ; 
the church that is responsible for the establishment 
and maintenance of theological seminaries ; and the 
church includes all who are members of the organi- 
zation. If there are men who refuse to aid in this 
work, God will require it of their hands. 

Every man should esteem it a favor to be able to 
do and to be allowed to do something to aid the Mas- 
ter in this good work. I am glad to be able to saj 
that from the hands of willing workers and warm- 
hearted mcD over §100,000 have already been con- 
tributed for this work. 

But the work must not, can not rest here. We be- 
gan this enterprise with no resources on hand. To 
accomplish the great work which has been done re- 
quired more means than has been received. There is 
an indebtedness against this institution which should 
be lifted — which must be lifted before it can push for- 
ward in the career which God has opened before it. 
Protessorships must be endowed, so the institution 
shall be secure against any reverses in business ; new 
departments must be established and tilled ; lecture- 
ships on various subjects must be arranged for in or- 
der to meet the wants of the age in which we live, 
and to send forth the man of God thoroughly furnish- 
ed with every good work. You have a substantial 
building in which to lodge your students and conduct 
your classes; but the building will never be properly- 
furnished until there is a good substantial library loithin 
its ivalls. 

President Porter, in his inaugural address before 



390 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



the friends of Yale College in 1871, uses the follow- 
ing language : 

" It is equally obvious that an instiution which as- 
spires in any sense to be a seat of learning, must pos- 
sess a full-furnished and a well-endowed library. If 
a college is to be conversant with the past it can only 
find the past in a collection of books which record 
their achievements and in the men who have read 
them. If the colleges of the country are to be the 
places to which men of learning are to be attracted as 
her chosen seats, then they should possess the best 
libraries of the land. If their professors are to be 
stimulated to research, long lines of books should in- 
spire their ardor or frown upon their indolence and 
neglect every time they enter the stately halls or well- 
farnished alcoves of the library. If the students are 
to be inspired with the range of human achievement 
and activity, they should be both humbled and ele- 
vated by the silent but impressive lessons which these 
well-appointed libraries can not but teach. ^ ^ ^ 
If there be any friend of this college who desires to 
serve it effectually, he can do it in no manner more 
honorable to himself and useful to the public than by 
endowing the library so liberally as to make it a per- 
petual memorial of his name." 

The plea he made for Yale College I desire to make 
for this seminary. Some time in the not far-distant 
future a man of means will be found, warm enough 
in heart, broad enough in thought, and far-reaching 
enough in purpose to put te'/i thousand dollars' worth 
of books into a library for this seminary. The time 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



391 



may be nearer than I even suspect. There may be 
some man here to-day who intends to do this thing. 
He may be from a distance or a resident of this city; 
he may be a member of this church or of some other 
church ; he may appear during the year or the next 
few years ; but the person is ah-eady born and will ap- 
pear, or my powers of discernment are failing. Much 
as I hesitate to cross the sea again, if the man is here 
to-day I am ready to contract with him to visit the 
old world with him to help secure a library of stand- 
ard books. Is thine heart right as my heart is with 
thy heart ? If it be, give me thine hand." Until this 
man comes let your tens, your fifties, your hundreds 
be given to fill the empty shelves and encourage the 
hearts of teachers and pupils. 

Time admonishes me that I must close. It is not 
for me to forecast the future, and yet I wonder what 
the outlook shall be when our descendants shall gather 
here fifty years after this day, on the third of May, to 
celebrate the semi-centennial of this dedication. How 
much greater shall be our numbers; how extensive 
our resources; how much more devoted our piety; 
how much nearer shall the world be brought to Christ? 
Whoever may be here, it is certain that most of us 
shall not be present. As yet, I doubt not that we 
shall know of it. The heavenly world will not be so 
distant, nor the things of earth of so little value, that 
we shall not be anxious to learn the proceedings of 
that day's work. It is in our power to make the day 
doubly glorious. It will be in the main what we in 
our time determine it shall be. What we do to-day 
and what we shall do in the years to come will makg 



392 



THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



that a sad or joyous day. While we have met to 
dedicate this building, may I not hope that in a higher 
and broader sense we shall, one and all, dedicate our- 
selves anew to Him who has called us to this work^ 
and to the work itself. We are individual units, each 
responsible to Him who gave us being. We have 
powers blinded and weakened by sin, and therefore we 
see through a glass darkly. No one of us holds the 
truth in its entirety. Each of us must see truth from 
our own stand-point, and ^therefore our visions will 
not be exactly alike. When the rebels tired on 
Sumte^r and insulted the nation it sent a thrill 
throughout the whole I^orth. Patriotic men, what- 
ever their ideas of methods of administration were 

r 

swallowed up in the conviction that the nation's 
honor should be sustained, and shoulder to shoulder 
they went to the contest a united people. However 
we may ditier in matters of opinion on other questions, 
let us resolve as one man to-day that this instiution 
shall be made a power for good in the Church and in 
the world, and sacrificing personal feelings and whims 
let there be a solemn promise to ourselves and our 
God that whatever we can do for its highest efficiency 
shall be done. Having erected our Ebenezer, we 
shall go forth with hopeful tread and a firm confi- 
dence in Him who planteth this work, that the next 
fifty years will see a glorious superstructure erected 
upon the foundation here laid. May the Head of the 
church accept the gift we bring him to-day, and so 
bless it and all the workers connected with it that i^ 
shall become a terror to evil-doers, but a defense and 
comfort to the faithful, loving disciple. 



II^DEX,. 



A 

PAGE. 

Adams, Mrs. S. F., cited 132 

Alexander, Dr., quoted 230 

" Mrs. C. F., quoted 46 

Alexandrian Library 142 

American College, the 71 

" Flag, the 14 

" Missions, Origin of 244 

Antislavery Society, the First 13 

Apostles, Unlearned 203 

Aptness to Teach 216, 230 

Archbishop Usher 50 

Architecture of the Egyptians 23 

Arnold, Matthew, Theory of 82 

B 

Bacchus, Worship of 277 

Bacon, Dr. Leonard, quoted 176 

Baptism of Children 56 

Baxter, quoted 50 

Bellows, Dr., quoted 334 

Benedict, St., Order of 67 

Bible in the Public Schools 186 

Boston, Antislavery Agitation in 14 

Bridges, quoted 50 

c 

Cairo, Bazaars of 27 

Cameron, Senator , 181 

Carlyle, Thomas, quoted 11 

Catechism, Value of the 50 

Catholic Church, View of the 186 

Channing, Dr., quoted 333 

Chase, Thomas, quoted 287 



394 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Chautauqua Normal Course 118 

Children, Moral Condition of 56 

" Relation of to the Church , 55 

" Training of for the Church 49 

Christianity and the College 63 

" the True Manhood 125 

Christian Ministry 352 

" Scholars, Eesponsibility of 161, 169 

Christ's Last Journey 253 

" Teaching 66,216 

Church, the, and Higher Education 387 

" Duty of the 351 

" Mission of the 99 

" Relation of the to the School 49 

" Prof., quoted ; „ 184 

Clark, Dr. Doras, quoted 54 

Classes, Organization of 60 

College, the First 63 

Conaity of Nations 148 

Common Schools 144 

Completion of the Soul 319 

Cotton Mather, quoted 71 

Courses of Study, Short 119 

Cromwell's Source of Power 28 

D 

D'Aubigne, Dr., quoted .376 

Daniel in Babylon 167 

Davenport, Iowa, Service in 104 

Davis, Dr. Lewis 387 

Defense of the Truth 231 

Demand of the Age 193 

Dexter, Dr., quoted 291 

Diana, Temple of at Ephesus , 219 

Diognes the Cjraic 125 

Doctrines of the Church, Where Taught 53 

Dress, Love of 270 

Duty of the Church 351 

E 

Educated Ministry the Want of the Age 203 

Education and Religion 183 

" the Higher, and the Church 287 

Effects of Apostolic Preaching 206 

Egypt and its People 21 

Egyptians. Literary Character of 23 



INDEX. 395 

PAGE. 

Elections, Corruption in 174 

Election, Theory of 56 

Electricity, Power of 16 

Eliot, President, quoted 185, 294 

El Kamae 24 

Emasculated Christianity.; 53 

Emerson, quoted 11 

Emotional Religion 194 

Ephesus, City of 219, 351 

Esther, History of 162, 164 

Esthetic Theory of Arnold 82 

F 

Fairchikl, President, quoted 172 

Faith in the Invisible 17 

Farrar, Canon, quoted 338, 341 

Fathers, Views of the 239 

Forces of Nature 17 

Formalism 131 

Formation of Character 313 

Frazer, Bishop, quoted 185 

Free Schools in America 72 

G 

Garrison, William Lloyd 14, 166 

Gilman, President, quoted 288, 300 

Government, Science of 171 

Grant, General 165 

Greek and Latin Literature Preserved 144 

Greek, Hellenistic 363 

" of the Scriptures 210 

" Testament 243 

Green, Dr. Ashbel, quoted 51 

Gregory 1 67 

Guizot, quoted 68, 290 

H 

Harvard College, founded 71 

" Eev. John 71 

Hebrew of the Scriptures 210 

Helpfulness of Christ 336 

Hindoo Religion ^ 248 

Hopkins, Dr., quoted 173 

Hoyt, Miller, quoted .' 234 

Humanity, Two Classes of 9 

Huxley, Professor, quoted , , 78 129 

" " Theory of 80 



396 



INDEX. 



I 

PAGE. 

Idea, Power of an 12 

Identity of Manhood and Religion 134 

Industrial Arts of the Egyptians ; 23 

Infidelity, Champions of 232 

Inspiration of the Apostles 206 

Intellect, Pride of 141 

International Lessons 53 

Investigation Urged 143 

Invisible, Faith in the 17 

" Forces, Control of 11 

" Power of the 9 

Isaiah, quoted 225 

Israel, Heroic Age in 20 

J 

Jefferson, Thomas, quoted 177, 199 

Jennings, Dr., quoted 208 

Jeroboam's Opportunity 167 

Jethro, Intercourse of Moses with 30 

Jewish Dispensation 207, 344 

Ritual 10 

Judas Iseariot 355 

• K 

Knox, John, Call of 161, 374 

" " Wish of 144 

L 

Landis, Professor, quoted 114 

Languages, Ancient, Necessity of Knowledge of 211 

Latin Language, Preservation of 67 

Layard, Dr 224 

Learning, Secular 67 

Legislation, Failure of 315 

Life, the True Idea of 253 

Lightfoot, Dr., quoted 20S, 380 

Like Priest, Like People ". 122 

Lincoln, Abraham ^ , 167, 282 

Longfellow, quoted 160 

Luther, cited 139, 243 

" quoted 7«\ 166 

" Solitude of 29 

Lynch, Lieutenant 224 



INDEX. 397 

M 

PAGE. 

Maeauley, quoted 20, 94 

Main, Prof., quoted 150, 151 

Man, the Complete 129 

Manhood — Building 157 

" Christianity the True 125 

Principles of 126 

Martineau, James 333 

Matter of Fact Men 9 

Max Muller 149 

Michigan University 306 

Ministry, Educated, the Want of the Age. 203 

> Milton, quoted 77 

Mission of the Church 99 

Mistakes of Men 323 

Molly Maguires 179 

Monasteries, Ancient 67 

Money, The Use of 271 

Montgomery, James, quoted 261 

Mordecai 162 

Moses at Sinai 35 

" Call of 31, 161 

" Death of 45 

" Life of 21 

" iftareh of 33 

" Temptation of 42 

" Trials of.. 39 

Mosheim, quoted 240, 290 

N 

National Progress 149 

" University of Egypt , 25 

Negro Suffrage 188 

Nineveh, Broken Columns of 326 

Northrop, H. G., quoted 185 

o 

Ohio Colleges 299 

Omar, quoted 142 

Otterbein, William, cited 245 

University, Work of 199 



398 INDEX. 



p 

PAGE. 

Parables of Our Lord 218 

Parker, Theodore, quoted 334 

Pastor, Duty of the 101 

" Work of the 100, 108 

Pastoral Theology, Profession of 110 

Paul's (Saint) Conversion 11 

" " First Charge 12 

" " quoted 99, 136, 159 

" " Suffering 12 

" Visit to Ephesus 219 

Peabody, Dr., quoted 184, 334 

People's Colleges 144 

Perfunctoriness in Religious "Work 191 * 

Persians, Foolish Law of the 163 

Peter, Saint 355 

Pharaoh and his Host 34 

Phillips, Samuel, quoted 298 

Philosophy, Schools of 64 

Piety, Need of 355 

Politics and Religion 171 

Porter, President, quoted 389, 304 

Power of an Idea 12 

" the Invisible 9 

Steam 16 

Pride of Intellect 141 

Puritans, Faith of the 19, 244 

Q 

Quadrivium 68 

Quaker Poet, quoted 182 

R 

Religion in Colleges 73 

of the Past 22 

Renan, Ernest, quoted 332. 

Responsibility of Christian Scholars 161 

Roman Citizenship 171 

Rough, quoted 375 

Rutfner, Supt., quoted , 297 

Ruins of Egyptian Temples 24 

s 

Samuel, Call of 373 

Sanhedrim, the Jewish 265 

Scholars, Christians Responsibility of 161 



INDEX. 399 

PAGE. 

School, Meaning of 63 

— " of the Ancients 64 

" Relation of to the Church 49 

" Supported by the Church 52 

Schools of the Prophets.... 209 

Science, Knowledge of Necessary 222, 312 

Scientist, The True 142 

Sectarianism in Colleges 296 

Service the True Idea of Life 253 

Seward, W. H., quoted 287 

Shakespeare, quoted 285 

Sinai, Israel at r 307 

Slaver}' a Barbarism 153 

" in America 12 

Society, Perfect 148 

Solitude, The Uses of 28 

Soul, Completion of the 319 

Spencer, Herbert, quoted 314 

Stanley, Dean, quoted 35, 307 

Stars and Stripes 14 

Statesmanship, Need of 181 

Steam, Power of 16 

Stephenson, William 372 

Study, Short Courses of 119 

Sunday-School and the Seminary 99 

Work 112 

Sutherland, Dr., quoted 57 

T 

Taylor, Dr., quoted 251 

Teachers Furnished by the Church 53 

Thebes, Monuments of 24 

Theological Seminaries 109 

Timothy, Paul to 236 

Training of Children for the Church 49 

Trivium 68 

Twilight of the World 139 

Tyler, Prof. W. S., quoted ^ .20, 243 

Tyag, Dr., quoted 299 

Tyrannus, School of 351 

u 

Union Biblical Seminary 383 

Universal Redemption 57 

University, Otterbein 199 

Usher's Biography, quoted .„,.„,,,.„,„, 50 



400 



INDEX. 



V 

PAGE. 

Vinet, Dr., quoted 20 

Von Raumer, quoted 70 

Voter, Responsibility of the 173 

w 

Want of the Age 203 

Washington, quoted 313 

White, President, quoted 187, 202, 30i 

Whittier, J. G., quoted 182 

Wyeliffe, cited 2i2 

Wilberforce, quoted' 343 

Wilkius, Bishop, quoted 364 

William Otterbein, cited .* 243 

Wiseman, Dr., quoted 226 

Woolsey, Dr., quoted 295 

Y 

Yale College, Plea for 390 



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